[ A R D E N ]

[10.14.1976]

[ t h i r d  p e r s o n]

[ unedited ]

arden stayed true to her word and sat in the library at midnight waiting for her friend. while she waited, she browsed the muggle section of the library. she had finished her previous book, the outsiders, a while ago and she needed something else to pass her time. she picked up a few different books, but put them back when a certain hardback caught her eye. 

"arden?" sirius called from the end of the aisle, and arden snapped away from the bookcase.
"hey, sirius. what's going on?" she asked softly, offering him a kind smile. 

"i... i don't know. ivory got with james. i shouldn't be upset since i'm the one that broke up with her, but it hurts."

"okay, let's go somewhere a little more private so we can talk about this," arden suggested. sirius nodded and led her to a wall on the seventh floor. he began pacing back and forth. arden soon became confused, but didn't say anything. suddenly, the wall parted and a door appeared in the center. 

"wha—"

"come on before someone catches us," he whispered, grabbing her hand and pulling her into the room. it was a large, apartment-like room with a bed, couch, kitchen, and bathroom. 

"sirius what the hell is this place?" how had arden never heard of this place? she had wandered through the castle a billion times and read every hogwarts book in the library and there was no mention of a secret room. 

"look, i know you're confused and i'll tell you everything—"

"it's fine. i don't need to know. let's just talk. what's going on? james would never do that to you, it makes no sense!" arden exclaimed. 

"he was drunk. like, extremely drunk. last week, him and ivory bumped into each other in the corridor and... and i don't know what went down after that except for the fact that they hooked up in the prefects bathroom. and it shouldn't matter to me because he was drunk and she wasn't with me and—"

"sirius, you have every right to be upset. your best mate got with the girl you love, so of course you're going to be upset!"

"yeah it's kinda like if i got with you, even though remus likes you."

"you're lying remus doesn't like me."

"under truth serum, i'd say the same thing. i'm telling the truth."

truth serum... her mind wandered to the capsule in her bag. this was a special occasion, so surely it would be okay to use it. 

"swear by it."

"what?"

"swear."

"i swear, arden, wha— truth serum, are you serious?"

"no i'm arden," she smiled. "if you don't want to, we don't have to. i don't want to force you to, but i really want to know if it's true."

"sure. yeah, sure, i'll do it." with that, sirius popped the top off of the capsule and downed the contents. they sat on the bed waiting for the serum to kick in. 

"so... ask me something that i definitely would not tell you. nothing too bad though, please."

"what's your middle name?"

"orion." he didn't skip a beat. "dammit. okay whatever."

"so, does remus like me?"

"yes."

"okay. sirius i want you to tell me everything that i don't know that you do. anything about me. anything that the boys have said."

"arden, please don't make me do this—"

"tell me. tell me about that night in the library."

"we had just gotten back from getting... something of ours from filch's office. remus insisted that we go to the library to... i don't even remember. he said we needed 'bonding time' or something. we ended up playing truth or dare and we made remus pick dare.  from what i recall, james had said something awfully offensive like "go talk to that freak over there" and remus went batshit crazy defending you. i hadn't thought anything of it at the time because i didn't know you so i didn't feel the need to be nice to you. he didn't know what to talk to you about so he asked us. i shrugged while james pushed him in your direction. you two seemed to be having a good time, even though remus looked like he was about to piss himself, and when he came back, he smacked james in the head and said 'i cant fucking stand you.' after that, we all got up and went back to the dormitory and fell asleep. that's all i remember."

arden sat there completely stunned. she was obviously upset, but was more angry than sad. "so everything? it was all a lie? every conversation, ev—"

"arden no! of course not! at the beginning it was all just a harmless game—"

"game?! sirius do you know how absolutely fucked up that is? i— ugh! this whole time i actually thought that—"

"arden after that night, everything changed. it wasn't just a game anymore. we all found a friend in you. we enjoyed having you around! when you didn't sit with us, everything went to hell."

she sat there with her head between her legs breathing heavily. 

"fuck!" she exclaimed. sirius looked at her sorrowfully.

"arden i'm sorry. really. please tell me what to do to fix it."

arden sighed. "i need a drink," she said. 

sirius's eyes widened. "o- okay, yeah there's some over there if you'd like. i think there's glasses in the cabinet..."

sirius continued talking but arden shut him out. she made a bee line to the liquor cabinet. firewhiskey. firewhiskey would slap right now. she grabbed two bottles of it and tossed one to sirius. 

"drink up," she said, popping the cork off with the bottle opener and tossing it to sirius. he didn't hesitate to follow her actions. he took a sip from the bottle and began talking, but was cut off. 

"you're sipping. pussy move. chug."

sirius was taken aback. he knew arden would cuss sometimes but something about tonight just didn't add up. arden was pissed. he had never seen her truly pissed off before.

"fuck, dude," she sighed, putting the bottle down and laying down on the bed. suddenly, like the flick of a switch, her anger turned to despair. arden began to cry. occasional sniffles turned into sobs.

"i'm so sorry, arden. i fucked up. we all fucked up. i'd do anything to go back and change that night so that we all could have met you under better circumstances. fuck, arden, we weren't thinking."

she put down the bottle and climbed onto the bed. she laid her head down on sirius and wrapped her arms around him. he was shocked, but embraced her without a second thought. they sat there for nearly an hour before the cried faded out and arden fell asleep.