I Need Her

Chapter 20

1976 - 1977

6th Year

//New Year//

The Gryffindor Common Room was covered in streamers, balloons and ribbons. On the wall was a large banner reading 'HAPPY 1977!' with the colours changing every few minutes. A large Gryffindor banner hung in the centre of the room with a large clock countering down to midnight, it was currently:

00 hours . 23 minutes . 43 seconds.

Music was blasting from loud speakers that were set on the wall. Sirius grinned at the seventh year students as he walked into the room. He hung his coat over the back of a chair with the camera tucked in the pocket. Sirius looked at Evangeline, who smiled at him lightly, as she placed her coat beside Sirius's then walked over to where Lily was talking with Remus.

"Fire whisky! I got fire whisky!" James voice shouted and Sirius turned to see his best friend walking through the crowd of seventh years holding bottles of orange-fiery coloured red liquid swishing around inside them. Sirius grinned and bounded forward toward his friend and took a bottle and James turned then grinned when he saw Sirius, "There you are! I've been looking all over for you!"

"I just needed a few minutes to myself." Sirius told him as he took the cap of the bottle of whisky in his hands. He lifted the it to his lips and took a swig, feeling the liquid burning the back of his throat as he watched James put the bottles down and open his own,

"Are you okay?" James questioned with eyebrows furrowed "You haven't been feeling yourself for the past couple of days."

"I'm fine." Sirius replied, taking another gulp. James furrowed his eyebrows and Sirius could tell that James didn't believe him. Sirius turned away from James and found himself looking at Remus, Evangeline and Lily. They were laughing and smiling with bottles of butterbear clutched into their hands as they sat on the couch. Remus had his free hand resting on the back of the couch behind Evangeline and his hand on her shoulder. Sirius felt his bottom lip slip between his teeth then he lifted the whisky up and downed it in one. He turned to James with a wide smirk on his face,

"Dragon-Fire shots, James?"

***

Evangeline shifted slightly on the sofa as she listened to Lily talk about her resolutions for 1977. Beside her, Remus was sat beside her with his arm around her with his fingers playing with the tips of her hair.

"I have decided to give up chocolate." Evangeline bit her lip and raised her eyebrows and looked away from Lily to prevent herself from laughing. She could hear the frown in Lily's voice, "What?"

"Nothing." Evangeline said as she composed herself and turned to her friend, who had a frown on her face,

"Tell me. Why can't I give up chocolate?" Lily asked,

"Well, its just...you love chocolate. I once asked you for one of your chocolates during Easter in fourth year and you locked it up and wouldn't let me near your side of the dorm for two weeks." Evangeline explained which caused Lily's cheeks to match the colour of her hair and Remus to stifled a laugh behind his hand.

"That was one time." Lily said bashfully,

"Not true." Evangeline said moving her gaze to Remus "She once threatened to hexed Marlene's hair purple because she reached for a small chocolate that was in a tray of hottings-hopping-chocolate-box - it was even the turkish-delight flavour that Lily doesn't like! She's insane when chocolates involved. I still have nightmares over the experiences with Lily and her beloved chocolate."

"Shut up, Evie!" Lily screeched as Remus laughed loudly whilst Evangeline wore a smirk on her face,

"You wont last a day without chocolate." She said and Lily pouted,

"Meanie." Lily whimpered and turned away from her "I'm not talking to you ever again." Evangeline whined then went over to Lily and sat on the arm of her chair and wrapped her arms around her ginger friend tightly,

"But you're my insane-chocolate-obsessed-best friend." Evangeline said as she held her tight "Always and forever! You'll never be rid of me!" Lily squealed and turned into Evangeline and flung her arms around her,

"You're my best friend too! No matter how many times you try take my chocolate!"

"Lily-flower!" James suddenly screamed and he hugged Lily from behind "I love you!"

"POTTER!"

"That's not what you say now. You say that later tonight when we - OUCH! NO! LILY!" Evangeline took a big step back as Lily jumped up and pulled a book of the table and started hitting James with it repeatedly before she huffed then dropped the book back on the table. Then, she sat back down in the armchair with James who was smirking and walked around the behind the couch and whispered to Remus,

"She's so into me." Before Remus or Evangeline could comment, a buzzing sound came from the banner with the countdown. All eyes turned to see the clock was counting down the last minute until midnight.

"Everyone! Find your midnight kiss!" shouted a seventh year as he winked a girl, who was making her way over to him. Evangeline looked at Remus, who was blushing deeply. She smiled softly and looked down at her lap and stared at her fumbling fingers. Unconsciously, her eyes began to trail upward and scan the room of people. One seventh year couple where already making out against a wall, Lily was hiding from James who was looking around the crowds like a lost sheep, then her eyes landed on Sirius Black. He was leaning against the wall with a shot of clear liquid in his hand. He looked very unperturbed by the fact he didn't have anyone to kiss at midnight. Its not like he has a girlfriend - right? Right. Evangeline looked to her left as Remus stood and held his hand out to her, she smiled and placed her hand in his as she stood. They look at the clock - 7 seconds. Evangeline looked at him and Remus blushed nervously,

"Do you...?"

"FIVE! FOUR! THREE!" shouted everyone in unison,

"I guess." Evangeline said softly and Remus nodded slightly.

"TWO ONE!" Then, a loud-echoing roar of a lion filled the Gryffindor common room and streamers of gold and red burst from thin air and tumbled down in a shower of bright colour. Evangeline lifted her head as Remus lowered his and pressed his lips to hers.

It was a nice kiss. Soft and slow. Remus was a good kisser. Evangeline could tell he was nervous by the way his lips trembled against hers and that fact his grip on the back of her shirt was very tight. She held her hands resting on his chest. Though she enjoyed it, she felt very awkward. Its felt like it wasn't right. Her left eye squinted open and she saw that seventh year couple that were making out where now kissing each others neck and whispering - no doubt about getting a room or some sort seeing as they slipped out not a moment later, James had his lips pressed to Lily's - whos eyes were wide but slowly closed as she she enjoyed it, a few others were kissing and the odd one or two were whooping or cheering. As her eyes then stopped on a boy with shoulder length hair with his lip locked with a seventh year with blonde hair that was in ringlets. Sirius had his hands deep in the girls hair whilst her hands were exploring him, first his chest then his hair then his back. Their lips were moving rapidly against one another's and she could clearly see that tongues were involved. Evangeline quickly snapped her eye closed and returned to her moment with Remus but with the images of Sirius and the girl kissing engraved in her mind. A few moments later, Remus pulled back and a smile on his face,

"That was nice." he said with a small smile on his lips,

"Yes." was Evangeline's response "Very nice." her eyes flicked over to where she'd seen Sirius and the girl but they were no longer there. Then, she saw a swirl of curly blonde hair dash up the stair-case that led to boys dormitory. A sickly feeling filled Evangeline's stomach and she looked down but then quickly shook her head and turned to Remus with a smile, "Happy new year, Remus."

"Happy new year, Evie." he gave her a glass of champagne and took one for himself from the table beside them. Remus lifted the glass up slightly "To a good year." Evangeline smiled and lifted her glass up,

"To a good year."

***

"TEN! NINE!"

He looked down at brunette with a small on his face and brushed the hair from her cheek softly and behind her ear. A light blush formed on her cheeks and looked up at him with her dark brown eyes staring up into his grey ones with love and adoration,

"Sirius..." she breathed and Sirius placed his hands on her lower back and pulled her closer so they were chest to chest. Evangeline placed her hand on his chest, gripping the material lightly,

"FIVE!"

"Evie..." he lifted one hand and stroked her cheek,

"FOUR!"

"I..."

"THREE!" Sirius leaned down so their lips were only a few centimeters away, "TWO! ONE! HAPPY NEW YEAR!" A smirk slid onto his face and he moved his head down and kissed her gently. Her lips were soft and silky with a hint of champagne resting on her lips. She tasted delicious. Their lips fit perfectly. Sirius lifted his hand up and cupped her cheek and stroked it with his thumb. Her hands moved over his body. First, her hands ran over his chest, gripping the material and pulling him closer. Then, her hands slipped to his back and fisted his shirt and tugging at it lightly. Finally, her hands threaded into his hair and gripped it tightly, pushing him more into her lips. Sirius knotted his hands in her long brown locks and opened his mouth over hers, and pushed his tongue between her lips and touched her tongue with his own. God she tasted so good.

"What the hell?!" Sirius pulled back from her and saw Remus standing with his jaw dropped "Padfoot! Evie!" His eyes widened and Sirius was hit by the remembrance that she was Remus's girlfriend. Remus had narrow eyes and he could see tears welling in his eyes "How could you do this to me? With Evie! You know I love her!" Sirius's mouth opened and closed pointlessly as he tried to speak with no sounds coming out. Remus clenched his fists, "I hate you! Don't ever talk to me again! I hate you!" He swung his fist hard at Sirius's face and Sirius dropped to the ground, clutching at his cheek. Then he started kicking at his side hard, causing Sirius to clutch at his stomach. Through the pain from Remus's repeated kicks, he looked up and saw James was stood behind Remus with Peter and Lily beside him,

"You betrayed him, Sirius. You were his friend." James said coldly, "You were my friend. Our friend."

"We hate you." Peter squeaked with his eyes narrowed down at Sirius.

"Your fault! You could have any girl and you choose her!" roared Remus as he swung his leg faster and harder into Sirius's stomach. Blood bubbled from Sirius mouth as he started to choke on his own blood.

"Remus," Sirius looked up through heavily-lidded eyes and saw Evangeline with her hand on Remus's arm. The kicks stopped as Remus turned to her "he tried to take me away from you but he doesn't deserve your attention like that. Just leave him." she said, her voice still heavenly but with an evil tinge. Remus glanced down at Sirius, breathing heavily, then looked at Evangeline and smirked. He kissed her deeply, wrapping his arms around her tightly. Sirius felt his heart squeeze as their lips moved, passion clear in their movements. The pair pulled back after a few moments, they smiled lovingly at each other then turned their back to the trembling Sirius and walked over to James, Lily and Peter. They all walked away from Sirius. Sirius's lifted himself up slowly,

"No." he croaked, blood dribbling from his lip "Please. Come back." he pulled himself onto his trembling legs and staggered forward with his hand out stretched to the disappearing people "Please. No. Please. NO!"

"NO!" Sirius screamed as he shot up from his bed with seat beeding down his face,

"Siri?" he snapped his eyes to the blonde that was laying beside him, caving her modesty with his blanket,

"Out." he hissed "Get out!"

"But - !"

"LEAVE! GET OUT!" He shouted and the girls scurried up and scrambled on her clothes before running out the room, slamming the door shut behind her. Sirius ran a hand through his hair and held it tightly as he tried to calm his heavy breathing. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath then sat against his head board, telling himself that it was only a dream nightmare. Sirius knew he wasn't going to get any sleep and he turned to the cloak that lay on his bedside table,

04:23 AM

"So much for happy new year."