Disclaimer: This will cover the whole story because I hate doing them for every chapter. I do not own the characters that you recognise. I do own Aurora and the other characters that you don't recognise from the HP books. Unfortunately those characters are worth nothin'.

Rating: PG-13. Some sexual themes and adult content. Also some mild swearing. Rating will stay the same. I'll try to keep it (relatively) clean because I know I have young readers.

A/N: My muse came good! Yay for Hubert! Um…ok, let me set the scene for you. The first part of this chapter is set on Halloween night during PoA. Then it moves onto between PoA and GoF. During August to be more specific. That's really all you need to know so have fun!

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Chapter 1

"If you love something, set it free; if it comes back it's yours, if it doesn't, it never was."

It was twelve years to the day. Aurora hadn't seen Sirius for twelve years. He'd left her to tend to some 'important business' and never returned.

Now, Aurora sat on the floor of her Liverpool flat and shuffled some newspaper clippings around the mouldy, green carpet. She picked up the most recent cutting and peered at it. The sunken eyes of Sirius Black stared back at her.

This scruffy, lifeless man was not the Sirius she remembered. He wasn't her Sirius. Aurora wasn't stupid though; her Sirius was long dead. Azkaban had made sure of that.

Somehow, Sirius had escaped the dreaded prison. No one knew how he'd done it. Aurora personally thought everyone had underestimated him. Sirius was one of the best wizards of the age. Everyone seemed to know why he escaped though. Sirius was going to kill young Harry Potter and rejoin the Dark Lord.

Aurora still wasn't sure if his escape was a good or bad thing yet. When the Ministry eventually caught up with him he'd be given the Dementor's Kiss. But Aurora still held a thread of hope in her heart. She shook it away though, Sirius was on the run and he wouldn't have time to drop in and see his old girlfriend.

In fact, Aurora wasn't sure if Sirius even wanted to see her. The last time they saw each other they'd had a huge fight. Aurora had replayed that last moment over and over in her mind.

*******FLASHBACK*******

"Why won't you make a commitment to me…to this relationship?" Aurora demanded.

"I'm happy with the way things are now!" Sirius yelled.

"But James and Lily are happily married with baby Harry and Remus and Faith are as good as engaged," Aurora argued.

"So that's it then? You want to get married and start a family. Sorry, honey, but that brings a whole lot of responsibility that I'm not ready for."

"I hate you!" Aurora screamed, tears streaming down her face.

"Look, you need to calm down. I have to tend to some important business right now but when I get back we'll discuss this properly," Sirius grabbed his cloak off the back of a chair and put it on.

"Go! I don't care! I HATE YOU!" Aurora shrieked.

Sirius shrugged then walked out the door, never to return.

*******END FLASHBACK*******

A tear rolled down Aurora's cheek as she recalled her last words to him. Even now, she could barely remember the days that followed. Everything was a blur. You-Know-Who killed James and Lily. Her best friends were dead and her boyfriend had been accused of betraying them. Everything had fallen apart the next day when the Ministry captured Sirius after he killed Peter Pettigrew and a street full of Muggles.

Aurora only vaguely recalled being questioned by the Ministry of Magic. She briefly searched the newspaper clippings till she found the one she was looking for.

The headline read: Black's girlfriend pleads her innocence but admits Black was evil.

As she reread the article, Aurora felt the guilt settle heavily in her stomach. She knew Sirius was innocent but she made up a story about constantly being under the Imperius Curse and not being able to escape him.

Aurora was sure she was the only one who knew Sirius was innocent. Even Remus and Faith had their doubts. Aurora hadn't spoken to either of them in twelve years because of it. Remus was the one Aurora suspected of being a spy. She'd heard Faith had gone into hiding and now lived as a Muggle but she had no idea what happened to Remus.

At times, Aurora even entertained thought of hunting Remus down and extracting revenge on behalf of her wrongly accused lover. She kept this violent fantasy to herself though; she didn't want to be associated with You-Know-Who.

No one knew Sirius better than Aurora and she knew he hadn't betrayed Lily and James. James was like a brother to him and he loved his Godson. He was incapable of betraying them.

Now that Sirius had escaped a few months ago the Ministry had come to Aurora for help. Shaking her head sadly she picked up a pair of scissors and the paper that had arrived that morning. Slowly and steadily she cut out the front-page article. It read:

Still no leads on Black, ex-girlfriend can't help.

Yesterday, the Minister of Magic visited Aurora Matheson, ex-girlfriend of escaped criminal Sirius Black. The Minister had hoped that Matheson would he able to give an insight into Black's thinking. Matheson only said that she couldn't hope to predict the mind of a madman and refused to comment further in the matter. She even turned down Mr. Fudge's offer of a surveillance team stationed outside her flat incase Black came after her.

Aurora laughed darkly. Provide and insight into Black? Well, he certainly wasn't after Harry and she also knew he'd be likely to head somewhere warm because he hated cold weather.

She imagined him stretched out on a tropical beach sipping a Pina Colada. She giggled at the thought. No, that wasn't his style. The desert could be an option except Sirius hated camels. The jungle seemed a lot more plausible. Somewhere in Africa probably.

Aurora closed her eyes and imagined Sirius trudging through the jungle. He appeared just as she remembered him. Tall, dark, strong, incredibly handsome, confident and full of life with that mischievous twinkle in his eye.

She sighed as Sirius pushed his way through the strangling vines in the hot jungle. He suddenly stopped and took off his shirt, Aurora kept her eyes closed and licked her lips slowly. Imaginary Sirius took a long drink of water from a bottle and Aurora watched hungrily as the water trickled from the corners of his mouth. It slid down his neck and over the hardened muscles of his chest and stomach.

A shiver ran down Aurora's spine. A small moan escaped her lips and her reverie was broken immediately. Her eyes flew open and slapped her hands over her mouth. She hadn't thought about Sirius like that in a while.

"Honestly, you're a grown woman," Aurora chided herself as she gathered the newspaper clippings back into a shoebox.

She was a thirty-three year old woman sitting alone fantasising about her old boyfriend who didn't want anything to do with her. Aurora supposed it was only natural though, she hadn't been with a guy for twelve years. She hadn't even kissed anyone since Sirius.

"No wonder I'm having fantasies about Sirius. I'm a sexually frustrated sociopath. God, I need a life," Aurora sighed as she picked up the box and went back to her room.

She shoved it under her bed then went and stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom. The mirror was pretty grimy but she could just make out her reflection.

"You're really not that bad looking," she said to herself and ran her fingers through her shoulder length black hair.

Truthfully, she did get propositioned a lot at the Muggle pub she worked at. Big, fat, drunk guys with bad comb-overs and wives at home weren't exactly her type though.

Sick of looking at herself now, she went back to her room and crawled into her large empty bed. Deep down, Aurora knew she didn't have a new boyfriend because she was still pining away for Sirius.

Another part of her, the rational part, knew it was ridiculous and idealistic of her to expect him to return and make everything better. But this hope, this idealistic dream, was what kept her sane.

But perhaps after twelve years it was time to move on.

***************

About ten months later…

Aurora picked the Daily Prophet up off the kitchen table. The headline told her that Sirius was still in hiding and her heart rose.

Not too long ago there had been a very close call. She'd heard over the Wireless that he'd been captured by the Ministry and was to be given the Dementor's Kiss. Aurora had cried non-stop. Then about an hour later more news had come through. Sirius had slipped through their fingers somehow. Aurora jumped around her kitchen and cheered. She must have been the only person in the world who did express any joy though.

She'd also heard news about Remus. Apparently he'd been teaching at Hogwarts for the past year. Somehow the information leaked out that Remus was a werewolf and he'd resigned fearing the backlash from concerned parents.

"Serves him bloody right," Aurora said as she pulled on a jacket and went to work.

***************

Five long hours later, she returned home and kicked off her shoes.

Aurora was about to head to her room to get changed when there was a sharp knock on the door.

She consulted her watch, "you're home early, sweetheart."

She unlocked the door and yanked it open. A cloaked figure stood on her doorstep. It wasn't whom she'd been expecting though.

"Can I help you with something?" Aurora sighed. If this was another Ministry goon asking for help she was going to get angry.

"Let me in," a deep, rough voice said urgently.

"Not in this life, buddy. Now, back up."

"Please let me in, Rory."

Aurora faltered. No one had called her Rory in years. She stumbled back in shock.

The stranger took this opportunity to step inside. He closed the door then slowly removed his hood.

"Oh God," Aurora leant on the wall for support.

"It's me."

She stared at him for a second. His hair was short and he was looking a little healthier than in his picture. There was no mistaking him though. It was Sirius Black. The man she'd longed to see for over twelve years now stood right in front of her.

Aurora didn't know what to do or say. It became too much for her to handle. She felt her knees buckle then everything went black.

"Not exactly the reaction I was hoping for," Sirius sighed as he peered at the unconscious woman.

Sirius locked the door behind himself then easily scooped her up in his arms.

"Why'd you have to go and faint? This situation is difficult enough already," he grunted as he kicked open a door that he hoped was her bedroom door.

A double bed was in the middle of the room. He gently placed her on it and shed his heavy cloak and sat beside her. Slowly, his eyes roamed the length of her body.

"You certainly haven't lost your looks. I think you might even look better," Sirius observed.

He took special note of the short black skirt she was wearing and her sheer white blouse that did nothing to hide the red lace bra underneath. Sirius also noticed that a nametag was pinned to her blouse, the odd thing was that it said: Amy.

Sirius looked back up at her face to make sure he had the right woman. It was definitely Aurora. Her soft pink lips were slightly parted and she looked almost angelic but it was definitely her.

Her eyes fluttered open slowly. She turned and looked at Sirius as if she was trying to remember what was going on.

"Hey there, Sleeping Beauty," he smiled kindly.

A look of realisation spread across her face. Aurora squealed and tried to scramble off the bed.

"Shh!" Sirius put his hand over her mouth and held her down.

Aurora lay still and looked up at him, her dark blue eyes wide in shock. She was pale and shaking.

"I didn't mean to scare you, baby. I won't hurt you. You're safe," Sirius soothed her softly.

Aurora mumbled something into his hand about not being scared but he didn't hear her.

"It's all right. Everything is ok. I just wanted to see you. You're so beautiful," he stroked her hair.

Realising that he wasn't planning on moving his hand anytime soon, Aurora bit him.

"Hey!" he jumped back in surprise and examined the teeth marks on the palm of his hand.

"Oh my God," Aurora clambered off the bed.

"There's nothing to worry about. I'm not going to hurt you," Sirius held out his hands to show he wasn't armed.

"I know that, you bloody git!" she rolled her eyes.

"Then why all the screaming and fainting?"

"You startled me. I wasn't exactly expecting to find you on my doorstep. What are you doing here in broad daylight? Someone might see you! Are you insane?"

"If you believe what the papers are saying."

"Oh, well, it's nice to see you can still joke about this. God, what are we going to do?" she began to wring her hands nervously.

"Settle down, Rory. I've obviously upset you so I'll leave right now."

"No!"

"You want me to stay?"

"Yes…I mean, at least wait till it gets dark. You're lucky no one saw you. The old lady across the street is always watching me. I bet she saw you. Bloody hell…I need a drink," she rubbed her forehead.

"You're a little more high-strung than I remember," Sirius said as he followed her out to the kitchen.

"If you'd been through what I have then you would be high-strung too."

"I'm sorry I put you through all that but you have to understand I-"

"Didn't do it. I know. You're completely innocent. I've always known it," she calmly poured herself a scotch.

If Sirius had been expecting to hear anything it certainly wasn't that.

"So, you believe I'm innocent?"

"Of course I do. I know Remus was the spy who was feeding information to You-Know-Who."

"Umm…I think we need to have a talk."

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A/N: A little short but I had to start somewhere. I promise it gets better. Thanks to Hubert (my muse) I have a plot. Kinda.

So do you like it?