August 1977

Potter Manor

                 "I'll invite Lily just this once, but if she says no, don't say I didn't try," Thea conceded, finally to her brother's endless hours of begging. He had found a map in Fleamont's office that showed a place where Merlin once lived, but he insisted on Thea inviting Lily. 

"Thank you! You're the best sister ever!" James shouted as Thea grinned and got up, looking at James expectantly. 

"What?" He asked.

"You really can't expect an owl to go all that way that fast," Thea stated. James held out his arm, which Thea took and apparated them to the Evans house. 

"Stay out here," she instructed.

"But-" James protested.

"No buts," Thea said sternly. 

Thea knocked on the door to be greeted by Mrs. Evans.

"Thea! How lovely to see you again! I'll get Lily," she spoke cheerily. "Lily! Thea's here!" 

The house was filled with sound of Lily Evans running down the stairs and a yelled "what?" 

"Hey Lils," Thea said softly.

"Thea, I wasn't expecting you. Nevertheless," Lily said with a kind smile as she hugged the girl tightly. 

"I missed you Lils," Thea breathed out as they rocked back and forth a bit in their embrace. 

"I missed you too T," Lily said, "come, come. Tell me everything!"

"About that," Thea said with a guilty smile.

"Oh no," Lily groaned.

"Would you possibly be willing to come a place that was supposedly where Merlin lived with me?" Thea asked innocently.

"By me, you mean me and James?" Lily asked with a cringed.

Thea nodded sorrowfully, "he's promised to be on his best behavior."

Lily thought for a moment, most likely to the year previous and her encounters with Severus Snape or more specifically how James Potter stood up for her. 

She sighed, "sure, why not."

"Wait, really?" Thea asked.

"Yes, really. Let's get going before I change my mind," Lily said with a smile. "Mum! I'm going out with Thea!"

"Stay safe, sweetheart!" Mrs. Evans called back. 

They exited the house together to find James Potter leaning against the gate. Lily stopped walking for a moment and Thea noticed, looked back and smirked.

"Come on, who's going to apparate with me? It's not February yet," Thea insisted. 

"I've got it," Lily said kindly, still staring at James. Thea put her hand over Lily's, snapping her out of her trance. 

"Are we going or not?" Thea asked.

"Right, where to?" Lily asked.

"Carmarthen. In Wales," James replied.

Lily nodded and closed her eyes, trying to focus on the place. She knew where they were going, generally, but it was much harder to apparate two people. 

Then in a pop, they were there. The boys were waiting for them. 

"There you all are!" Thea called, "I was wondering where you'd been!"

Thea greeted them with a grin. Lily noticed that this behavior was odd for her, she never was this jolly around people other than her family and, well, her.

Lily shoved Thea's side as if to say what the hell and Thea shoved back a little.

"Mum locked away my books--" Thea started to explain.

"Merlin, it was about time. The amount of times that I've told her to do that," Lily joked with a wide smile.

"You WHAT?" Thea roared.

"It's good for you! Look! You're getting along with the boys!" Lily exclaimed, gesturing to Thea's new found friends. 

"Sure. Fine. Alright," she grumbled as they walked up a hill.

"Here it is boys! Right by the bay. The muggles think he lived in the town, but he actually lived out here by the sea. Claimed it helped his magic flow or what not," James explained as he surveyed the land. 

"How do you know that?" Thea asked. Her brother never studied. 

"Oh you know, I've been around," James said mysteriously. 

"I told him about it," Sirius revealed. Thea and Lily started laughing. They held hands as they walked the windy peak. Finally the boys found (apparently) the exact spot where his magical stone hut was located and they decided to picnic there (with food packed by Euphemia). 

Thea plopped down and brought out a quill and a journal. She loved to write in her free time -- often dedicating moments like this to writing poetry about the pure emotion that electrified the air. 

Besides, she didn't want to get in the way of Lily and James. She knew that by the end of the year they would be together. 

"It looks like you might be right," Sirius said as he laid down next to the cross-legged Thea.

"I'm always right," Thea remarked, not looking up from the journal. 

"Are you now?" Sirius teased. Thea held a ghost of a smile.

"Yes, I am. Because unlike you, I don't speak unless I've thought about it first," Thea shot back, "so therefore, if I say things as grand as my brother and Lily, then I will be right."

"Ah," Sirius said, looking out at the two of them dancing to a muggle song, "does it ever bother you?"

"Some times. But I always knew it was going to happen, James is too persistent for his own good. But, in the end, it's what'll make them happy, so it makes me happy," Thea confessed. 

"But he has that rule for you. Where say one of us fancied you or you fancied one of us, he would say no," Sirius said.

"Are you trying to tell me something?" Thea teased, looking briefly at the Black boy.

"No," he said with a chuckle, "but James is my best mate, but sometimes he can be like this. I don't know what I'd do with out him, but he's a bit of a hypocrite."

"I guess he is. But he has to have something wrong with him," Thea joked.

"I guess you're right," Sirius said, "so then does Lily have something wrong? Probably not, she's perfect."

Thea laughed for a moment, "she does, believe me."

"Oh?" Sirius asked.

"They're much more similar, Lily and James, than I think she'd care to admit. She has major hypocritical tendencies. She definitely does. And she also has a very binary sense of moral right and wrong. She's not perfect, you know. It's practically impossible, but the thing is, is that she tries. She tries to be kind to everyone and that's what makes her, well her," Thea explained.

Sirius went silent, observing the red head. She was laughing as James tried to catch her. He smiled a bit to himself and looked back at Thea, who was still writing. He felt his stare linger a moment longer than it should've.  

"You're staring," Thea mumbled. 

"N-no I'm not," Sirius stuttered, flustered at having been caught. Thea looked up and then down at Sirius.

"You so were," Thea teased with a cheeky smile. 

"Ok maybe," Sirius said with a smile. 

Thea rolled her eyes and continued writing, only to feel a head on her shoulder.

"Yes," she drawled out.

"What are you writing?" Sirius asked.

"Poetry," she responded.

"Are you always this descriptive?" Sirius joked.

"Do you always act like a child?" Thea shot back. 

"Only with you, darling," Sirius said. Though she couldn't see it, she knew he was grinning. She huffed and slammed her journal shut and turned to face Sirius.

"So," she said with a small smile.

"So," he repeated as he straightened up. Thea then laid down on his lap and stared up at the sky. 

"There's a rabbit up there," she said pointing at a cloud after a couple of minutes. Sirius shifted so he was lying down with her, but her head was on his chest. 

"Would you look at that," he said, looking up at where she was pointing and then back down at her. 

He loved how childish she got right then. Pointing out shapes in clouds, what a concept. She acted like a grown up, she spoke like a grown up. It was like she'd forgotten that she was just a teenager, except for moments like these when the world stilled and she could be free.