"I still can't believe you didn't get your Christmas shopping done until today," Lily said to me for the hundredth time tonight. I glanced up at her for a second to find her arms crossed over her chest. I shrugged at her before returning back to wrapping the Christmas presents. "It's Christmas Eve, Julia!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I've been busy."

"With what? Snogging every boy you meet?"

I shot her a glare. "Of course not. Who do you think I am?"

"The girl who has dated more boys than I can count on both hands and feet since the start of school this year. And we're only halfway through."

"I like what I see, but I don't like what I get."

She sat down on the couch next to me, making me rip a little hole in the wrapping paper I was using. I cursed underneath my breath at the sight of it and shot her another glare. "You don't like what you get because you haven't even tried talking to the boy you actually like."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Sure."

Before we could get into another argument about my dating life, James, Peter, and Remus all strolled into the living room with a tray of hot chocolate. "You aren't supposed to be in here!" I shouted at them, throwing myself over the rest of the presents I hadn't wrapped yet. "I don't want any of you to see your presents yet!"

"We brought hot cocoa, though," James said sadly. 

He set the tray down on the table with Lily's help since he had his eyes closed. He tried to walk back to the other boys who also had their eyes closed, but unfortunately for him, his foot got caught around the table, and he pitched forward. Just like bowling pins, the three of them fell down backwards, ending up in a mess of limbs together.

"Julia!" Lily yelled at me. However, she focused her attention back on the boys as I started laughing. "Are you three alright?"

"Never been better," Remus said hoarsely. He was the first one to break free from the massive pileup, and he made his way over to me with his eyes open this time. "Before you start yelling at me, Juls, I don't care if I see what you got me anymore. I just want to sit down without getting hurt."

"Fine." 

I watched as the rest of them all sat down in the chairs or on the couch sadly. I didn't want them to find out what I had bought for them yet. However, I couldn't stop them now, especially since this was James's house and all. His parents let us stay over for Winter Break, even me and Lily. We just had to sleep on opposite sides of the house because his parents didn't trust him or the other boys. 

"Oh, you got me sweets?" Peter asked, picking up the chocolate box I had bought for him last minute. He grinned at me. "Thanks, Juls."

I stood up, tearing the box out of his grip. "You weren't supposed to know about it yet," I said angrily. "None of you were. But since you're here, you lot can help me wrap everything."

A chorus of groans rose up as they all understood what I said. "No way," Remus said, shaking his head. "You already got us hurt. I'm not doing this for you."

"Oh, yes, you are." I started shoving different gifts in their laps as quickly as I could. James and Lily tried to throw their things back to me, but I kept dodging their attempts by jumping around the table. "If you two don't quit, I'll knock over the hot cocoa."

"How did we even become friends with you?" James asked, shaking his head. I knew he was joking, though. There was a certain twinkle in his eyes that were magnified because of his glasses. "You're the worst person I know."

"Back at you, Jimmy."

"Julianne."

"Jam."

"That's not even a name, Julia."

"Hey, it works."

As we all started wrapping the presents together, I snuck a quick glance around at my friends. Lily was obviously my friend since she was my twin sister and all. When we first began going to Hogwarts, it was just the two of us against the rest of the world. We didn't know anybody nor did we want to really get to know anybody. All the people there were different than us. They weren't raised in a Muggle household with Muggle parents and another muggle sister. They weren't hated because they were Muggle Borns, like we were.

The bullying Lily and I endured in our first year was terrible. Everyone always looked at us like we had five heads and were sprouting another set of limbs. I would hear whispers about us from our classmates as well as the upperclassmen, mostly talking about how we didn't belong there because we weren't Purebloods. Some, though, were threats. And one person did take me up on that threat. 

That was one of the worst days of my life when Lucius Malfoy, a Sixth or Seventh year, attacked me. He had figured out when Lily and I would be apart and would taunt me about being a Mudblood and how I should go back home to my Muggle world. However, that day I wasn't taking any of his criticisms. I had recently learned a spell that would hurt him, and I had used it on him. I didn't really remember much after that since he started using spell after spell against me, but I do know that James, Peter, Remus, and Sirius all saved me by taking on the older student themselves. That was when we became best friends, and we had been inseparable since.

Speaking of Sirius, where was he? He should have been here by now. Usually, he was here before the rest of us, crashing at James's house to get away from his terrible family. But, this year, he wasn't. And that was what worried me the most.

"Hey, do you guys know where Sirius is at?" I asked them, looking up from the present I was currently wrapping. Lily shot me a look, but I ignored her. "When is he going to get here?"

"Should be soon," Remus said. He lifted his arm and looked at the watch on it, nodding. "He sent a letter to me a few days ago, telling me that he had to do some things before he got here."

"Do you happen to know what those things were?"

"Sorry, no."

Just as I was about to get back to wrapping the present, there was a loud knock on the door. I jumped up from the couch, nearly knocking over mine and Remus's hot cocoa in the process. "I bet that's him now," I said to them.

James, Remus, and Peter all grinned at each other before literally sprinting toward the front door. They each were stumbling over each other to be the first to pull open the door, so I pushed through them and opened it myself. The three of them burst into song, singing one of the Christmas songs that had been playing through town a lot lately, but I didn't really hear them at all. No, all I could focus on was the blood all over Sirius's face and the exhausted look in his eyes.

"Sirius!" I cried, latching onto his hand. He let his suitcase fall down as he stumbled into my arms. "Sirius, what happened to you?"

The other three boys seemed to get the message that there was something wrong with Sirius when he fell to the ground with the loudest thud I had ever heard. It kept replaying in my head over and over again as James got his parents to help the unconscious boy. Someone had retrieved his suitcase because it was sitting by the closed door, looking battered and beaten. There was a small amount of blood on the handle of the suitcase. I had to look away from it because I couldn't bear to think about him being hurt. It pained my heart to even try to think about that.

James, Remus, Peter, Lily, and I were all sitting in the living room together as James's parents looked after Sirius through the night. None of us could bear to leave each others sides, just in case something happened to him. None of us would even try to go to sleep because we didn't want to miss a single thing.

While the boys were whispering to each other softly, I kept my gaze locked on the fireplace, watching as the ashes and embers danced around. The fire had burned out a long time ago, but I couldn't really look away. If I did, I would burst into tears. My heart was like thunder in my chest as it raced and raced and raced. I thought that the worst day of my life was when Lucius attacked me. I was wrong. This was the worst day of my life by far.

"How are you doing?" Lily asked as she sat down next to me. She handed me a cup of hot cocoa, but I didn't bother drinking it. 

"How do you think I'm doing?"

"You look like rubbish."

"That's how I feel."

"Julia, you look worse than Remus, and we all know that Remus loves Sirius better than anyone else in this world."

"I love him, Lily." I was shocked to hear that coming out of my mouth. Nothing before had told me that I loved, but I knew it was true. Truer than anything else I had ever said before. "I love Sirius Black."

"Finally!" she said loudly. The three boys look at us with weird gazes, and I had to look away from them before they found out what I had just told my sister. "Finally," she whispered back to me after earning herself a slap on the arm for alerting the others. "You finally admitted that you love Sirius."

"You knew?"

"We all knew, Juls."

"Well, I didn't know."

"Deep down, I think you did. Why do you think you didn't like the guys you dated this year?"

"Because none of them are like Sirius."

"Exactly."

I shook my head slowly. I had never pictured myself loving Sirius Black, but somehow, I knew I would. He was always the one I stayed close to whenever doing anything. He was always the one I went to with my issues, besides Lily. He was always the one I wanted to spend all my time with. How could I not have known that I was in love with him?

"He's awake now," James's mom said, sticking her head in the living room. "I only want one of you to see him at a time, okay?"

I got up first and nearly ran over to her. "You're not seeing him first," James said, beating me to his mother. He crossed his arms over his chest as he looked at me. Even though I only reached his shoulders, I glared up at him like I could take him on. "I've been friends with him longer than you."

"James, honey, let her go first," Lily said, coming to my rescue. She slipped her arm through James's, trying to pull him away from me and his mother. "Seriously. Julia needs to see him right now."

"What's so important that she needs to see him first?" Lily whispered something in his ear, and his eyes went wide as he looked at me. I could feel my cheeks getting warm as his wide eyes turned mischievous. "Gotcha, Lil. I'll let her go first."

"Thanks, James. I owe you one," I said to him with a nod. I turned to Lily and gave her a quick smile. "And thanks, Lil."

"Anything for you."

I followed Mrs. Potter down the hall toward the third bedroom where I had been staying with Lily. The door was slightly ajar, so I pushed it open and saw Sirius sitting up in the bed closest to the window with a sterile bandage on his head. His smile grew when he saw that it was me in here and not anyone else.

"Julia."

"Sirius."

I stepped into the room and hesitantly made my way over to him. Now that I knew I loved him, it was very awkward for me to even talk to him. Instead, I sat down on the other bed, facing him. We just stared at each other for the longest time before he finally said, "I heard you were worried about me."

"Did Mrs. Potter really tell you that?"

"Hey, me and Mrs. P are as thick as thieves."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, my name is Sirius."

"Stop it. I'm not in the joking mood."

"So, you were worried about me."

I looked down at the floor and shrugged. I didn't want him to look into my eyes to know what I was feeling. "More than you know."

"Mrs. P and I talked for a while before she came and got you," Sirius said. He must not have heard what I had whispered. That was for the better, I guess. I looked back up at him to find him already looking at me with those beautiful eyes of his. "She said that I can stay here for as long as I need to."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Who attacked you?"

"My father."

"That's what I thought."

"Yeah."

We both went quiet as we let that thought linger in the air. I had known that his family had basically disowned him after he got sorted into Gryffindor, but I didn't think it was that bad. I was wrong. 

"Why were you worried about me, Julia?"

I looked up at him again and sighed. There was no way out of this now. I had to tell him. "Because I'm in love with you."

"Yeah? You finally figured that out?"

"You knew, too?" I asked him.

"Of course I did."

"How did everyone know but me?"

"Because you're clueless."

"I guess I am." I swallowed hard, wondering why he wasn't talking about his feelings for me. I had let mine out of the bag. What was he doing? "So, I love you. What about you? What do you feel about me?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Like you said before, I'm very clueless."

He laughed. I didn't think it was that funny. "I love you, too, Julia Evans. I always have."

A small smile appeared on my face as heard him say that. Apparently, I was very clueless because I had no idea that he even felt that way about me, let alone me feeling that way about him. However, it had worked out perfectly.

"Do you think you can get up?" I asked him. "The boys are dying to see you."

"As long as you help me, then I think I'll be fine."

"Okay."

With my help, he stood up. He was very wobbly on his feet, so I slipped my arm around his waist, holding him against me tightly. He wrapped his own arm around my shoulders. We fit perfectly together just like it was meant to be. And we were meant to be, I knew that now.