You’ve Got A Friend || James + Sirius
Timeline: The Friday evening before ‘Parents Weekend’ (early October 1976) Setting: The Marauder’s sixth-year dormitory Title Meaning: ‘You’ve Got A Friend’ by James Taylor (released in 1971), is a poignant song about the importance of friendship in difficult times @sirius-whoisleft
The castle had been abuzz with the news of the impending ‘Parents Weekend’ ever since a small notice had appeared in each house’s common-rooms bright and early on the Monday morning. It was an unprecedented event and James - along with the majority of Hogwarts’ populace - had speculated openly upon Headmaster Dumbledore’s timing and motives for holding such an occasion. Clearly it was linked to the increasingly dark happenings beyond the castle’s walls and the growing paranoia rife within the wizarding world; yet it was still an interesting topic that had received much conjecture over the past week.
One student who had been, from James’ observant perspective, noticeably withdrawn since the heralding of the weekend’s event was his best friend, Sirius Black. It was little wonder why - Sirius had run away from his parent’s Grimmauld Place home during the summer and the idea of being confronted with Orion and Walburga Black when they, presumably, would arrive to visit Regulus, was filling him with dread. Knowing this, James had immediately written home to make sure that his parents would be attending the weekend, so that their presence, hopefully, would be of some comfort to Sirius. His mother, Euphemia, had replied quickly and confirmed that she would absolutely be in attendance, but stated that his father, Fleamont, was feeling too unwell this week to manage a Floo Trip (and all Hogwarts’ staircases).
The secret (even though James had never intended for it to become a secret) of his Father’s deteriorating health was yet another worry that had begun to niggle away at the back of his mind. The conversation he’d held with Remus - where he’d blurted out the whole thing - was still fresh in James’ mind and he knew that it was now imperative that he tell Sirius the truth about Monty. Sirius deserved to know - he and Fleamont had a close relationship separate to James and they’d only grown closer when the Potter’s had taken in Sirius over the summer. The problem was, James had no bleeding idea how to approach the topic. After all that Sirius had suffered and what he was still dealing with - James didn’t want to cause him more pain. Yet, he knew that shielding Sirius from the truth couldn’t last forever. Eventually he’d find out, one way or the other, and he’d be more hurt the longer the information was kept from him. He’d be especially hurt if the information came to him from any other source than James.
Once James had resolved to have a “Big Conversation” (capital B, capital C - as they rarely happened between the two boys who never liked being serious (no pun intended)), trying to get Sirius alone had been rather difficult over the course of the week. Perhaps Sirius sensed that a Big Conversation was due - a sixth sense really did exist between the best friends and it was uncanny how they could tune into each others moods and pick up upon each other’s little idiosyncrasies - but James suspected that Sirius had been doing his best at avoiding being alone with him. Finally though, on that particular Friday evening, James had returned from his nightly detention to the dormitory and found it relatively empty - relatively as Remus was at a Prefect’s meeting (probably organising the weekend ahead), so only Peter and Sirius were left to lounge about together. With a somewhat apologetic smile, James had asked Peter to clear off down into the common-room for a while. James didn’t like to exclude either Wormtail or Moony - but this Big Conversation needed to be had with Sirius and Sirius alone.
With a weary sigh, he’d scraped an agitated hand through his untidy hair (his most obvious nervous tic) and sat down on the edge of his four-poster - facing Sirius’ bed. He caught Sirius’ glance and flashed him a wry smile,
“So. How long did you reckon avoiding me would work, Padfoot?”