• Romeo, Juliet & Cinderella • | Tomrry

Act. I. Knowing each other names

What she always wanted to experience with her daughter, she couldn't because she wasn't interested in anything! James, on the other hand, was more than happy, and Lily took some resentment in that. He always encouraged Harriet with such things instead of helping her to be what Lily considered more appropriate for a girl.

Sirius wasn't much help, he is more indiscreet with his obvious desire for a godson and in giving Harriet boyish attitudes. At least that's how the redhead perceives it.

Lily had to shoo him away to get him to stop putting ideas in her head. It didn't help. Her daughter still hates dresses, all her uniforms are trousers; her hair is cut short all over; her clothes are baggy and big; she has a total dislike of earrings, necklaces, pretty bracelets and things like that. In general, it's like having a boy when she's a girl.

"What did you give her?" asks James and Sirius smiles shaking his head.

"It's a secret. If I tell you it loses the fun," replies the man with the long, messy hair.

"That better not have been a authorization so she can get on the quidditch team." Lily warns before leaving, too annoyed to stand there. She'll wait until it's time to say goodbye herself. Sirius bites his lip and leans towards James.

"Do you think she hates me too much?" he asks quietly, James brings a hand to his face.

"I think you'll have to spend Yule somewhere else" Sirius gives a groan. "She's been more nervous and grumpy since the letter arrived. You're not helping me at all."

"James, it's not my fault that Lily hates that Harriet is the way she is," retorts the eldest Black son. "It's just the way she is. If she stopped liking quidditch I'm not going to hate her or try to convince her to love it. It's the thing I hate most about my family after all." He notes and James knows it to be so.

Sirius simply loves Harriet. A better best man he couldn't be. He's almost an extension of himself. He adores his daughter. Even if he likes the girlish things that "belong" to her, she would be his little darling in every way. James doesn't understand how Lily is capable of being so angry about something that changes over time. Tomorrow she might like skirts, make-up, have long hair.

And it's not going to change that she's his daughter! It makes James feel overwhelmed. He hopes that, with her at Hogwarts, he will be able to talk to Lily a little more, to improve the relationship that has fallen apart with his daughter's development.

It's ten o'clock, the express doors close and everyone says goodbye from the window. Lily stands next to James, waving goodbye to Harriet with a smile. Harriet does something that makes all three of their expressions tense.

"I'LL BE A SEEKER, I PROMISE!"

"Oh Sirius..." laments James quietly, still smiling so as not to make her think there's something wrong. Sirius closes his eyes.

"Well, we're done here. I'm going."

He disappears and Lily rubs her forehead with one hand.

"Shall we go eat, my love?" offers James with a strained smile and Lily gives him a bad look.

"Yes. I want to eat," she says heavily.

Harriet walks down the train corridor to enter the cabin she found empty. She has left her suitcase there with Sirius' signed permission autorization. Being her godfather he has power too. He looked into it to be sure. On the way, Harriet notices another compartment empty except for one person. She tilts his head, peering inside and finding a student already in uniform. Tall, elegant, he holds a book in one hand to read.

Feeling stared at, he looks at her and Harriet furrows her eyebrows. Is it possible to have red eyes? It looks very strange. Almost creepy. He pulls out his wand and closes the door curtains with it.