CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE! ༉‧₊˚✧
━━━━ ⋆𖤐₊˚.༄ ♡ ━━━━

SIRIUS AND DIYA'S summer together had been so repetitive that the two didn't even realize how odd their dynamic would look from an outside perspective. As a result of the boiling summer, the two had become connoisseurs in ice cream tasting, reviewing many different parlors and carts around London.

"Did you bring the notebook?" Sirius asked Diya, turning to her as he surveyed the menu options.

Diya scoffed, "Obviously. I'm not an amateur."

James interjected, stepping forward and raising his hand, "I'm sorry — an amateur at what, exactly?"

"Ice cream tasting." Sirius replied, with an 'obviously' expression tattooed on his face.

"Is there a way to be a professional at ice cream tasting?" James asked once again.

Sirius paused, turning his head to look at his best friend, "Ask the notebook that."

Looking expectantly at Diya, she scoffed, opening her rucksack and shuffling through it. Sirius held his hand out, waiting as she plucked the item out from her bag.

James peers over Sirius's shoulder as he opens the notebook, showing the reviews that he and Diya had written.

"How often were you and Diya going out for ice cream that it warranted an entire notebook?" James laughed, leaning back.

Sirius turned to look at Diya, not realizing her face was closer to his than expected. Resisting the urge to look at her lips, he said, "Plenty of times. Probably every day."

Diya looked up from the notebook to Sirius, her eyes widening slightly at the closeness as she backed up. "Yup. He just couldn't resist me."

Sirius rolled his eyes.

Frank made a face, "I could've sworn you two hated each other last time I saw you."

Sirius looked up at the ceiling as if pondering, "Yeah, sounds about right."

"So, if that's right, then how are you two so..." He tried to think of a word. "Tight-knit, now?"

Diya jumped in, a grin on her face as she began, "Basically, what happened is—"

Sirius dragged a hand over his face, "Oh no."

"He sent me a letter being all like," Diya made a face as she began to lower her voice to mock Sirius, "Oh, Diya, I am so miserable without you and your company. Please forgive me and meet me tomorrow in Islington."

"That's not what I sound like!" Sirius pouted.

Diya ignored him, continuing, "Pretty much, he groveled and begged and pleaded, and eventually, I decided to forgive him."

Sirius scoffed, "Definitely not how that went down."

"Yes, it is." Diya smiled, shutting him down.

Alice and Lily exchanged looks, a bit shocked by Sirius and Diya's attitude toward each other.

Remus leaned in toward the two, "This is weird for you guys too, right?"

Lily nodded in return, "Very."

"Sorry to interrupt," The boy behind the counter spoke up, "But if you guys don't know what you're going to order yet, then please step out of the line."

"Oh, sorry!" Diya started, walking toward the counter. "I'll have a bowl of black cherry, please."

"Black cherry?" Sirius stepped up as well, "Sounds good to me. I'll have the same."

Lily's eyes narrowed at the mention of the ice cream flavor.

"I'll have mint chocolate chip, please." She said, trying to ignore the bizarre nature of Diya and Sirius's friendship.

The rest of the group stepped up to the counter, ordering a wide variety of flavors. James went with rocky road, Remus and Peter both went for chocolate, Alice and Frank shared a toffee flavor, and Marlene got butter pecan.

Sirius and Diya got their bowls simultaneously, the former saying, "Merlin, I can't wait to rate this."

"How does your review system even work, anyway?" Peter asked, licking at his chocolate ice cream cone.

"Well, there's several categories." Diya began, scooping some ice cream into her mouth.

"Yeah, there's overall flavor, temperature, the texture of add-ons, and mouth-feel." Sirius didn't look up from his bowl of ice cream as he spoke.

"Mouth-feel?" James asks. "What is that?"

He peeked his head up, "The insides of your cheeks are very sensitive. It's like the inside of your thighs except with a tongue."

Marlene looked horrified at the thought, "You're lucky you're cute because the shit that leaves your mouth should get you locked up."

Sirius raised his arms, his spoon nearly flying out of his bowl. "Wha-at? I'm just being myself!"

"You shouldn't." Marlene shook her head.

Rolling his eyes, Sirius asked Diya, "How do you feel about your bowl so far?"

She nodded, swallowing the ice cream already in her mouth, "It's alright, but it's not better than Mark's stand."

Sirius laughed, "Will anything be better than Mark's stand?"

"Hmm, I don't know." Diya jokingly stroked her chin, "The customer service at that little store back in July might have him beat."

Expecting to hear laughter from her friends, Diya turned back to the rest of the group. The other seven looked at her with inquiry written all over their faces.

"Oh," Diya whispered. "Um, basically, back in late July—"

"Like two weeks ago." Sirius clarified as if his friends didn't know when July was.

"Sirius and I stopped into an ice cream store, kind of similar to this one, and it was insanely hot that day. So I went to ask the cashier for some water, and he gave me two cokes on the house."

Diya directed her story mainly to Lily, looking at her with amusement dancing behind her eyes.

"Anyway, eventually, he came over to Sirius and me, and he gave me this little paper with his phone number on it." Diya gestured with her hands the minuscule size of the paper. "And he said that I had been sending him some sort of a vibe, and he knew I was just too shy to ask him out."

"Ah, ah, ah!" Sirius interjected, pointing to his friends. "We can't forget what he said after that: Call me between 4 and 9... That's when I'm most easily reachable."

Lily smiled at the story, "I'm guessing Sebastian didn't take that too well."

"Sebastian?" Diya tilted her head in questioning.

"Yeah... your boy-toy?" Lily clarified, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh! That Sebastian!" Diya laughed nervously, exchanging a glance with Sirius, who was also confused. "He didn't really care all that much."

"Sorry," Sirius chuckled, "Sebastian?"

"Yeah, didn't Diya tell you?" Lily asked, eating a spoonful of mint chocolate chip, "She has a boyfriend in Greece."

"Okay, woah." Diya held a hand out in rebuttal as she heard Sirius inhale quickly. "First of all, he's not my boyfriend. Second of all, he is not that big of a deal where we have to be name-dropping him."

"I'm still confused." Sirius raised a hand.

"But I thought that the two of you were getting serious."

Diya shook her head vehemently, "Nope. I believe my exact words were we just kiss from time to time."

Lily drops the topic before Diya looks back over to Sirius. He was still in a befuddled state, his eyebrows furrowed as if trying to piece something together. He looked back to Diya, who rolled her eyes and subtly pointed to him while mouthing "Sebastian."

Sirius's mouth formed an "o" shape as he finally registered that Sebastian was a code name to keep Lily from figuring out his identity.

As the group finished their ice cream, they all began to pile out of the small shop, throwing their cups and cone wrappers into the trash as they left. Sirius immediately clutched onto Diya's notebook, opening up to a new page as soon as he hit the sidewalk.

"Lil, do you have a pen?" Diya smiled at Sirius's frantic nature. He was nothing short of ecstatic to write a new review.

"Yeah, of course." Lily rummaged through her own bag, handing Diya a small ballpoint pen. Thanking her, Diya handed the pen off to Sirius, who wordlessly began to scribble his review on the page.

As the sun continued to set, the group persisted down the cobblestoned streets.

The sun dropped below the horizon, giving life to a wide selection of orange and pink hues. Sometimes she wished the sky would look that way forever, but she knew she wouldn't treasure it as much. So, for those few fleeting instants, before twilight was brought in, Diya basked in the glow of the sky, her skin turning to a richer color.

"Having fun, Diya?" Lily's voice came bubbling from in front of her. Diya had lagged behind, too absorbed in the sunset to be conscious of her surroundings.

"When I'm with you? Always." Diya winked at her best friend. Lily smiled pleasantly, walking back toward her friend and grabbing her arm, looping her own through it.

"I'm glad that we decided to do this." Lily's voice to more of a whispered tone.

"We?" Diya asked, sarcasm shining through her tone. "I'm pretty sure I was the one who set this whole thing up, thank you very much."

Lily rolled her eyes, "Well, yeah. But I guess I'm glad that I agreed."

"I think we can also give me credit for that." Diya raised her hand, giggling as Lily shoved her with her shoulder.

"Either way," Lily started, her eyes on the sunset as well. "I think this was good for us. I know you were still a little bit hesitant ever since that whole Snape feud."

"Yeah, but I think being able to spend time as a group again healed whatever bad feelings were still there." Diya nodded. "I was only ever mad for you, though. You know that, right?"

Lily smiled at her best friend, "Yeah, I know, Di. And I love you for always trying to protect me."

Diya smiled in return, resting her head on her friend's shoulder, slowing both of them down as they tried to remain in stride while walking. Suddenly, Diya's eyes widened, and she popped up off of Lily's shoulder once more.

"Oh! That reminds me!" Diya shoved a hand into her pocket, shuffling around until she heard a tinking noise. "I think this belongs to you."

Lily held her palm out as she squinted at the object in Diya's hand. "Is that my charm bracelet?"

Diya nodded, biting her bottom lip with an excited smile. "I made a few adjustments."

"You?" Lily playfully scoffed. "I'm not so sure I want it back if you toyed with it."

"Hush," Diya rolled her eyes, grinning. "Do you notice anything different?"

Lily brought the bracelet up to her eye level. "Is that a new charm?"

"Yeah. I had Zoya charm it." Diya stopped her sentence to laugh. "Oh my god, she charmed the charm. I didn't even realize!"

Lily's eyes were wide with amusement as she watched Diya double over at her own joke. Back pulsating with laughter, she kept her hands on her knees as she paused in stride, too overcome with amusement to function.

"Whew! I'm too good." She came back up, wiping a tear from her eye. "Anyway."

"She charmed the charm." Lily reminded her.

"Yes, exactly. I had Zoya charm it to let me know whenever your heart rate is elevated to an abnormal level. That way, I'll know if you're ever in trouble."

"So what, you're like my personal bodyguard?" Lily smiled, testing the term out.

Diya shook her head, "I prefer the term superhero, thank you very much."

Lily examined the bracelet with a smile. It was so rewarding to know that she had a friend who cared about her to such a level to have a personal alert system based solely on her.

"Thank you, Diya." Lily clasped the bracelet onto her wrist with Diya's help.

"You're welcome, Lil. Just don't expect a Christmas present this year."

She chuckled, continuing, "I mean it. This is probably the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me."

"Are you sure about that?" Diya let the bracelet fall onto Lily's wrist, finally clasped, "James can be a romantic when he wants to be."

"Not genuinely." Lily reminded with a roll of her eyes, a smile never fading from her lips as they continued onward.

As twilight finally took over in place of the sunset, Diya found herself lagging behind the group. It wasn't on purpose, obviously, but it was relaxing to know that she was in the presence of her friends while she busied herself with the inner workings of her own mind.

She was so busy thinking to herself and enjoying the nightlife of London, however, that she didn't notice Sirius lagging behind with her.

Lily was ahead, fully engaged in a cheerful conversation with Alice, Frank, and Marlene. As she went to push her hair behind her ear, the charm bracelet caught the reflection of the downtown lights, evoking a smile from both Lily and Diya. The two made eye contact for a brief moment. Lily tilted her head to the side, motioning Diya over as Frank resumed.

Still maintaining her silence, she shook her head with a smile. She somewhat enjoyed this not-so-alone alone time.

With reassurance, Lily turned her attention back to the people before her, leaving Diya back to her thoughts.

Sirius smiled at the interaction, happy to see Diya happy. Even though his summer had been shit, his moments with Diya made it so much better. He continued to stare ahead, picking up speed.

Suddenly yanked — quite literally — from her stupor, Diya felt an iron grip around her wrist.

Behind her stood a taller man, probably in his early twenties. His eyes were unfocused and red. Diya immediately inhaled an overwhelming stench of alcohol on his breath and knew immediately where this was headed.

So much for alone time, she thought bitterly.

"Hey, beautiful." The man slurred.

Sirius quickly realized that Diya was no longer by his side. He turned around, leaving the group behind.

"Sirius," Peter turned around from the front of the group, about to ask his friend a question when he noticed his absence. "Oh, no. Guys!"

Lily turned around, blanching immediately. "Shit." She picked up her pace in the opposite direction, back toward Sirius, Diya, and the unfamiliar man.

"Let's go, guys," James wore a frown on his face, turning back around.

Diya heard Sirius and the rest of their friends heading toward her, panicking slightly and thrusting her hand out behind her, signaling them to stop.

"Can I help you?" Diya asked kindly, trying to keep the situation from escalating. From behind her, Sirius frowned, confused as to where this was heading. Remus walked forward for a second, placing a hand on his shoulder, telling him not to interfere.

"You, me. That pub." He pointed mindlessly over his shoulder with the hand that wasn't suffocating her wrist.

"Sorry, sir." Diya smiled as confidently as she could, knowing that the hand behind her was beginning to shake slightly. "I have a boyfriend."

Most of the time, with these situations, Diya's polite "no" wasn't taken seriously as an answer. Sometimes people even got mad at her for it. However, when another man was brought into the equation, the man would usually back off.

It wasn't out of respect for her fake relationship but instead for her "boyfriend's" property.

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind," The man began to lean down, Diya recoiling as the stench got stronger. "Plus, who says he has to know?"

"He already does," Diya began to slowly twist her wrist out of his grip. Aimlessly pointing behind her, she said, "He's right there."

Just as she had predicted, the man dropped her wrist as though it had burned him, looking behind her and making eye contact with Sirius. Sobering slightly, he apologized, "Sorry, mate. Didn't know."

Diya stepped back, accidentally backing up into Sirius. Looking up at him and noticing that he was about to retort, sending the conversation spiraling, she placed a hand on his chest.

"It's fine." She grabbed Sirius's hand, pulling him away from the confrontation and back toward their friends.

Lily came barrelling toward Diya, enveloping her into a hug, nearly whacking Sirius in the face. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

Diya smiled at her friend, holding up her wrist, which was beginning to bruise slightly, "Not anything new that I haven't dealt with before, babe."

Lily lifted her own wrist in return, "Maybe you need this bracelet more than me."

Diya rolled her eyes, pushing Lily's hand back down with a smile.

"You've dealt with something like that before?" James frowned, fiddling with the rolled-up cuffs of his shirt.

"That's an understatement," Marlene snorted. "We've all dealt like shit like that."

"All of you?" Peter motioned to the girls.

"Yep." Remus rocked on the heels of his feet. "Especially Lily."

"What?" James's head snapped toward the redhead. "Who's been troubling you? I'll curse them into the next century."

Lily raised an eyebrow, looking at James incredulously as they continued to walk. "That might be a bit hard for you to do, considering you're the culprit."

James opened and closed his mouth, lost for words, as he continued to walk.

Sirius leaned down, still holding Diya's hand, to whisper into her ear. "You sure you're okay?"

Diya looked up at Sirius, who was only a few inches from her face, and smiled, her eyes flickering down to his lips. "I'm honestly fine, Sirius. I'm not going to let some random drunkard ruin tonight. I'm just excited to be spending time with everyone again."

And just like that, he quickly snapped back to his typical playful state, "Everyone? What, was my company not enough for you, Diya?"

Using the hand intertwined with his, she pushed him, laughing softly. "Oh, you know me, just constantly greedy for attention and company."

When Sirius didn't respond to her quip, she frowned. Was she really that bad at telling jokes?

Diya didn't know how to feel after Sirius clamped his hand over her mouth, dragging her away. Diya kicked and squirmed an appropriate amount, still confused where this was leading. It didn't help that Sirius's hand tasted of sweat and black cherry ice cream. He began to lead them to an alleyway, away from their friends.

Finally, after a good few seconds of squirming, Diya managed to kick free and begin to scramble away. That didn't last long, though, since Sirius clasped his hands around her waist. He picked her back up and pulled her toward him.

Her back was flush with his front, "Are you calm now? I'm not here to murder you!"

"Well, then what the hell was all of that dragging for?" Diya whispered incredulously.

"I think after the day we've had, we deserve some alone time is all," Sirius whispered back, his lips lowering to Diya's neck.

She sighed, melting into his touch. "That's fair to assume."

He loosened his grip on her briefly before spinning her to face him. Slowly, he blocked her in with his arms on the brick wall's surface. As Sirius walked forward, Diya walked back until her head lightly grazed the brick wall as he towered over her.

Sirius's face lowered into her neck once more, placing kisses up and down.

Diya talked to fill the silence, fully aware that she was killing the mood. Still, what even is a makeout session without annoying your other half?

"You're right, though." She began. "I mean, our days started at, what? Three in the morning? And then Lily interrupted, and we really haven't had any time to ourselves since."

Sirius pulled away from her neck, his eyebrow quirked, "Are you done with the synopsis? Can we continue?"

Diya rolled her eyes, silently moving her hair away from her neck and tilting her head to the side, her earring jingling in the process.

"Do you ever think about anything other than..." Diya tried to find the word, "This?"

"No." Sirius deadpanned as he pulled away once more. "But you know what I am thinking about?"

"What?"

"First Sebastian, now that." Sirius's hands moved to her waist, "Looks like the universe doesn't want us together, darling."

"Shut up," Diya giggles, pressing a kiss to his lips to do so. She pulled back, smiling at the look that had taken over his face. He knew that he had won.

"You do know—" kiss. "that Sebastian—" kiss. "is you, right?" kiss.

Sirius pulled back from his relentless barrage of kisses, "Diya, I'm stupid, but not that stupid."

Diya moved her hands from his chest to raise them in mock surrender, "Hey, you said it, not me!"

Rolling his eyes, he kissed her once more. "What I mean is, I trust you. If you reassure me, even in silence, I'll believe you."

Diya pulls back this time, her head resting gently against the brick wall. "You really trust me that much, Black?"

"Talwar, I—"

"Diya!" Alice's voice comes from the opening of the alleyway.

Sirius groaned, his head falling into Diya's neck as his plan was foiled once more.

"Diya?" Alice's voice was much closer now. Too close.

In the lamplight, Alice could distinctly make out Sirius's red sunnies and hickory colored hair hiding in the crook of Diya's neck as she consolingly patted his back.

"What's going on here?" She couldn't help but smile as she stared at her two friends and their odd behavior.

Sirius didn't even bother to move his arms off Diya's waist as he lifted his head up.

"What does it look like, Fortescue?" He said in a monotone voice.

"Hey!" Diya swatted lightly at his shoulder, "Don't be rude."

Alice looked between the two. Obviously, the two had something going on, but their dynamic was more confusing than anything.

Alice raised a hand as if in class, "I'm sorry. That still didn't answer my question."

The reality of the situation finally set in for Diya as Sirius moved his hands off her waist.

"Uhm..."

Sirius shrugged, "We're together."

"Together?" Alice's nose crinkled, "Like boyfriend-girlfriend?"

Sirius shook his head, an arm snaking back around Diya's waist as she struggled for words. "Nothing official. Just together, I guess."

"Well, does—"

"No one knows, Alice." Diya walked closer to the girl, Sirius's arm falling off back to his side.

"And judging by this location," Alice pointed to the dark alleyway, barely lit by the single streetlamp. "You want it to stay that way?"

Sirius and Diya both nodded. The former said, "Yeah, I'm honestly just not ready for the Remus judgment."

Alice hummed, "Yeah, you're right. He does have a rather stern face.

"It's a good face, though." Diya shrugged.

"Not better than mine, though, right?" Sirius asked, nudging Diya lightly.

"Hmm, I don't know." Diya turned back around to him, smiling as he began to lean in once more.

Alice cleared her throat, "Right. Diya, can I have a word?"

Diya spun back around, ignoring Sirius clearing his throat, and making eye contact with Alice. Slowly, as if approaching a dangerous animal, Diya nodded with furrowed brows. "Yeah, of course."

"I'll just go fuck off, then." Sirius nodded to himself before jogging out of the alleyway and back to his friends.

Alice and Diya stared at each other as they both wordlessly walked out of the alley behind Sirius, keeping their distance.

"Are you okay, Di?"

Diya looked concerned, "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"I mean, you seemed happy last year." Alice rubbed her hands together.

Diya sighed. This exact moment was what she had been worried about.

"Listen, Alice. She and I ended in May, as we should have. Neither of us was serious, and neither of us got our feelings hurt. It was a fling, and I'm glad it remained that way because the two of us are much better as friends."

Alice sighed as she listened to Diya's planned speech. Clearly, she had been dreading this aspect of the confrontation. "I know, but are you sure that this relationship with Sirius is healthy? So soon after?"

"I'm positive, Al." Diya reached out and grabbed her friend's hand. "That's why we're taking it so slow and waiting to tell people."

"Well, didn't you wait to tell us last time, too?" Alice inquired.

Diya sent her an exasperated look, but before she could say anything, Alice intervened again.

"I'll drop the subject." Alice smiled as she walked closer to her friend. "You know I just want the best for you, right?"

Diya nodded, pulling the shorter girl into a hug. "I love you, Alice."

"I love you too, Di." Alice pulled away, her hands still on Diya's forearms.

༉‧₊˚✧

"Guys, look!" Frank points out in the distance.

Down the street sat a café with a brick exterior. It would've blended in with the rest of the structures nearby if it weren't for the strikingly modern logo on the face of the building. Apart from the flickering lamposts lining the street, nothing was lighting the café. The only light came from inside, indicating that they were still open.

Alice gasps, clutching her boyfriend's arm. "What a cute little café!"

Marlene raises an eyebrow, looking over at Lily, "They want to go to a café after eating pancakes for breakfast?"

"Don't forget the ice cream we just had, too." Lily snickered.

Not hearing — or simply ignoring them — the group headed toward the singular door to the café.

"Should we take a headcount or something?" Peter laughed, looking at the crowd of nine teenagers entering the small establishment.

"We could probably start a religion with this number of people." Diya joked, poking Peter in the side in jest.

Remus chimes in, "Technically, we could start three religions. It only takes three people to start a religion."

Sirius and James look over now, the former saying, "Oh yeah? What's the math behind that?"

"One person is a thought, two is a discussion, three is a belief," Remus says blankly, not breaking eye contact with Sirius.

"Oh." Sirius's grin drops, "I was joking, but okay."

Remus raised an eyebrow now, "And was that a good idea?"

Sirius looked to the ground, "No, sir."

Diya's eyes were wide and filled with amusement as she watched the scene unfold before her. "Well, on that note, welcome to Café Étoile."

The small tea room was completely empty except for a man who sat at a table frantically annotating a book. Peter watched as the waitress behind the counter widened her eyes as the group came in through the door, each of them having their own conversations amongst themselves.

"Hi, how are you?" She directed her comments to Lily, who had made her way to the front of the group.

Eyes moving around the empty café, Lily smiled, amused by her own wittiness as she said, "You guys aren't too busy, are you?"

The waitress laughed before ducking under the counter to grab a pen and paper. "Anywhere specific that you lot wanna sit?"

Remus spoke up, "You wouldn't mind terribly if we all just chose our seats, would you?"

"Not at all," The waitress beamed.

With that, the group began to seat themselves two or three to a table, ensuring they were all near each other as they began to pick up their menus.

The waitress stood awkwardly near the front of the group with her notepad. She rocked back and forth on her heels, making eye contact with Diya.

"Um," Diya looked around at all of her friends. "We might take a while to get ourselves settled and figure out our orders. Is it alright with you if we just come up to the counter and let you know one by one?"

"Absolutely!" The waitress nodded, smiling. "That'll make it much easier on me."

She left with a wink, and Diya lowered her head to hide the flustered expression on her face.

Sirius watched her reaction with amusement. He nudged her, "You should totally go get her phone number!"

Diya picked her head up, glaring at him, a smile still on her face. "Shut up, Sirius."

He smiled, satisfied with the reaction he had received.

Remus leaned over from the table next to them, "What are you two getting?"

"No idea." Diya shrugged.

Sirius took one glance down at the menu and decided, "Pancakes."

Diya raised an eyebrow, "Didn't we just have pancakes this morning?"

Folding the menu very dramatically, he said, "One can never have enough pancakes, darling."

Remus and Diya shared a look, the former shaking his head and leaning back into his chair.

"Did you just invent a new accent?" James leaned over now, hearing Sirius's last statement.

Sirius nodded haughtily, "Yes, indeed."

"That got old so quickly." Diya rolled her eyes. "Please stop."

Lily chimed in, "Speaking of getting old..."

"Oh yeah!" Alice chirped, her hand on Frank's, which was currently slung over her shoulders. "Lily and I were just talking about this last night. You know, Sirius and Diya really missed out yesterday. We had the time of our lives upstairs. It was just like the dorms again! Except, this time, we weren't worried about assignments or anything."

"Damn!" Diya sucked her teeth, "That sounds like fun! Did you guys all hang out before sleeping last night?"

"Yeah, Me, Lily, and Frank! It really was—"

"Alice, babe." Marlene cut in, her hand extending out to touch Alice's on the table. "I love you, but can you please get to what you and Lily were talking about instead of the seating chart?"

Alice giggled, "'Course, I can. We were both thinking about where the lot of us will be in like 10 years."

"Well, I would hope that we're all living on our own, maybe married with kids?" Peter shrugged as he sat back down in his seat, back from placing his order with the waitress at the counter.

Lily smiled, "Well yeah, hopefully. But I mean job-wise."

"Exactly. I know that Lily wants to go into healing of some kind. But like, Remus!" Alice startled him, not prepared to be called out in the middle of the conversation. "I feel like I don't know a thing about you!"

Remus chuckled, "Good. I'd like to keep it that way."

"Oh, come on, R.J.!" Diya pushed her shoulder against his. "Do you know what you want to be?"

Remus's eyebrows lifted at the question. He looked back at the rest of his friends, sighing at their prying eyes. "I mean, I guess being a professor seems kind of fun."

"Eugh!" Sirius scrunched his nose in disgust at the thought. "Professor Moony? Hell no, you would become too stuck up."

Remus's face lit up at the challenge of changing Sirius's mind, "See? That's what I want to change! I want to be like McGonagall but like one-hundred times better."

"Is there any such thing?" James quipped.

Remus rolled his eyes playfully. "I just mean, how cool would it be if we had a teacher on our side when you get in too deep with your pranks, Prongs?"

James narrowed his eyes in thought, "I'm listening."

"Yeah, you are." Remus began to quietly drum his fingers on the tabletop, "That's what I would be. Just imagine a little mini Prongs, or Padfoot, or Wormtail running around pranking people, and then they get in a bind, and who's there to save them? Professor Uncle Moony!"

Peter sipped at his milkshake, "It's not a bad idea, Moony."

Diya nodded, "Yeah, I could get used to Professor R.J."

Alice beamed at the banter, her plan to get all of us to bond clearly in motion.

"What about you, James?"

James scoffed. "Isn't it obvious?"

James turned for everyone to see him, and Diya followed, mocking him in synchrony.

"I'll be captain of the Falcons, smashing heads like pumpkins!" They both said in unison.

"Hey!" James complained, noticing her impression.

"Please, you know I wouldn't mock you if I didn't have the same plan." Diya smiled, teasing him.

"What, you also plan on becoming captain of the Falcons?" Marlene asked from down the table.

Diya shrugged, "Well, probably not Falmouth and not captain, but professional quidditch is definitely up there as a possibility."

"I think a 'thank you' is in order."

James's request fell on deaf ears as the group focused on Diya.

Peter leaned forward, "Well, what are your other plans?"

"For me, it was always my plan to become an author of some type." Diya smiled at the thought, only widening Alice's own smile. She refocused, ridding herself of her daydream, realizing that everyone had their eyes on her. "Then, Quidditch came around, and that was also something I wanted to pursue.

Sirius, suddenly noticing her very slight discomfort, turned the attention onto himself, "For me, I think I'll finally start going through with my whole art thing."

"Really?" James fully turned in his seat to face his friend. "You're going through with that?"

Sirius nodded, "I don't see why not. It's not like I have to worry about dirtying Walburga's house anymore."

Frank looked confused as he joined, "What art thing?"

"Honestly, Frank," James answered for Sirus. "You should see the way he used to paint. I actually thought he would drop out of school — or maybe even magic altogether — just to travel and paint."

Lily looked somewhat shocked, "Really? Are we talking about the same Black here?"

Diya leaned in to whisper to Sirius, "I didn't know you painted."

A genuine smile formed on his lips, "I'll just have to show you sometime."

"So, Black," Marlene began. "Do you think one day we'll be seeing Sirius Black signed on the bottom of some nudist painting?"

"That's the dream, McKinnon." Sirius leaned back, his hands propped behind his head. He shrugged, "If that doesn't work out, I'll simply resort to violence and become an Auror."

"Fair enough."

After everyone in the group had gone up and taken turns ordering their food, Lily paid for it. She was the only one with enough muggle money to pay for it, being a muggle-born herself.

Needless to say, the process to pay her back was a bit awkward since the waitress came back as all of the patrons were tossing their metallic coins at Lily.

Finally, after their long day, all nine teenagers sat down together and ate their third meal of the day. In fact, the group had been in the café for so long that they were assigned a new waitress since the other went home.

After James had ordered an entire charcuterie board for himself, the girls (and Remus) watched in horror as he began to saw into the meats.

Marlene begins, "You are butchering that charcuterie board."

"I'm so glad you said something," Lily sighed, placing a hand on her chest, "It's like that chicken killed your wife and kids or something!"

"Mar, let the poor boy eat how he wants." Diya joked as she helped Sirius cut his pancakes.

"If you want to eat like a dog, that's fine by me." Marlene put her hands up.

"Hey, don't start attacking dogs," Sirius said, practically drooling as Diya shoveled a forkful of pancakes into his mouth.

"Fine, then he's eating like a pig."

"Leave me alone, McKinnon," James mumbled with jam all over his face, still chewing on a piece of cheese.

"Merlin, James," Lily laughed at the board. "All of the cheeses and jams are all mixed together!"

He rolled his eyes, "That's the point, Lilybug."

Lily groaned at the nickname before continuing, "The point is to combine them together on your fork, not smush them all together with your hands."

"Aw, come on, Evans." Sirius swallowed his bite of pancake, grabbing his fork from Diya. "It's not James's fault that he never got the pureblood etiquette lecture."

"Why is everyone attacking me right now?" James whined, balling up one of the paper menus and using it to wipe the food from his chin.

"That's vile, Potter!" Lily squirmed as he threw the tarnished menu back onto the table. "Have some manners!"

"If you insist, my sweet." He winked, ignoring how everyone at the table groaned.

༉‧₊˚✧
a/n

i'm so glad that i have finally (officially) introduced diya's pansexuality!!

she was with a girl from march to may of her 5th year, and only the girls knew.

if you want me to explain more of that story (without giving away the identity of the girl, although i'm sure many of u have figured it out) i'll respond to all comments!