Three Years Previously

Brixton, London 1977

"Aimee, let me in! Aimee!"

A man hammered desperately on the wooden door, his silver eyes filled with pain and some other dark emotion. Cursing loudly, he drew out his wand, muttering 'alohomora' and then an indefinable series of words, flicking his wand with each. But the door remained unopened. Frustrated, he kneaded his forehead, closing his eyes and sighing. He walked around in a circle, moving away from the terraced house, then returning to it with a fresh determination.

"Aimee, please. Just open the door and hear me out. I'm begging you." He raised to knock again, but then just let his hand rest again the wooden panelling. "I'm not leaving, Aimee. Not until you talk to me."

For the first time in an hour and a half, he heard movement inside the house: footsteps approaching the door. A ghost of a smile touched his lips, lingering until the door opened and he was faced with a chestnut-haired man.

"What do you want?"

"Jack, I know she's in here. I just want to talk to her."

"You're not going anywhere near her, understand?"

He glowered at the other man, trying to keep his temper in check. He moved around Jack and into the lounge, his eyes anxiously scanning the room.

"Oi!" came Jack's holler from the hallway, but the man was deaf to the shout.

A girl with auburn hair and amber eyes sat on the sofa, crouched over a boiling mug of hot chocolate. She was dressed in loose-fitting tracksuit bottoms, rolled up to the knee and a lilac pyjama top. This was Aimee. Aimee, with her eyes downcast; Aimee, refusing to make eye contact with him; Aimee, opting to speak to the floor.

"Why are you here, Sirius?" she asked coldly.

"Aimee, you have to listen to me. Please, I - " The sentence was cut off; interrupted by Jack's entrance into the lounge.

"She doesn't want to speak to you."

Sirius looked from brother to sister, saying softly, "Just ten minutes, Aimee."

Aimee tensed - a second - three - then nodded stiffly.

"You've got five," said Jack sharply, before walking out of the room.

Sirius sighed and moved closer to the sofa, awkwardly standing a two metres between the door and Aimee's settee. He gazed towards the seat next to her, as if planning to sit there, but if he was, he thought better of it. Instead he backed away and leant against the wall adjacent her. He swallowed nervously.

"Everyone's been worried about you. Lily, James, Remus… they all care about you, you know."

She turned to look at him coolly. "I feel so indebted."

"Aimee…"

"Stop it."

Sirius widened his eyes in surprise. "What?"

"Stop staying my name like it's going to make everything better. It's not. It doesn't change anything. You can stand there for as long as long as you like and it's not going to change the fact you betrayed me."

"Look, Aimee, we weren't even together at the time."

She shook her head in disbelief, stood up and walked to the window. "Oh, I get it. You felt lonely, so you thought, 'Might as well keep it in the family'."

"No!" exclaimed Sirius, horrified. "It wasn't like that! You'd left and I was hurting and completely pissed. I didn't know what I was doing!"

Still shaking her head, she spoke to herself, rather than him. "See that's the thing I really can't get my head around. Okay, so you were angry. So you got yourself plastered. But she's my sister! Any whore in a club or down back alley, whatever. But not my sister!"

"Aimee, it was a mistake. A stupid, crazy mistake, I swear to you!" vowed Sirius desperately.

"No, I don't think you're hearing me. I don't care if it was a mistake or you're planning to propose to her! You slept with my sister, and that's the end of it!"

She moved towards the door, but Sirius hastily stood in front of it, grasped her hands and pulled her body close to his. "I love you," he whispered fervently. "And I know you feel the same way." For a second, Aimee looked into his eyes like his last words were true, like she loved him. Her lips drew ever closer to his, until they were almost touching. Closer, closer, closer. But then something came crashing down. Her eyes tore away from his and became hard and cold. She pulled away from him, and returned to the other side of the room.

"Not anymore."

Sirius's shoulders sank. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes. Seconds later, he lifted his head to try again. "Aimee, I want to be with you."

She stayed silent.

"Just tell me what I have to do - anything, I swear I'll do it!"

"Anything?" she asked in a blank, monotone voice.

"Anything," he promised earnestly.

"Don't sleep with my sister."

"Aimee…"

"You haven't tried apologizing yet," she continued emptily. "You've been at the door, what, an hour? And you still haven't said you're sorry."

Sirius drew a short breath. "I am. I'm so sorry. But it didn't mean anything."

"Okay. Apology accepted."

He froze. Then his eyes shone and he looked up at her, full of hope. "Really?"

"Yeah. Now get out."

"What?" His face fell, full of shock this time.

"I want you out of my brother's house," she went on in the same cold tone. "And then I want you to remove every last trace of yourself from my life."

"Aimee, please, don't do this. Don't let Keira ruin everything we have."

"How dare you! How fucking dare you! Acting like it's her fault? You're just as much to blame as she is! You're the one who ruined everything between us - you did that, not her!"

"I know!" he shouted. "I know that, okay! I just want…" He smiled bitterly. "I just want everything back to the way it was. I want us to forget everything. The abortion, Keira, everything. I want you to trust me again. I want you.

"You know, I was going to ask you to marry me. Before we had that row. I wanted us to get married, have a family, spend out lives together. Has that gone, Aimee? Has that really gone?" His question was asked with all the innocence and vulnerability of a child.

"I would have said 'yes'." This time, her voice had lost the chill - the hostile tone. Now it had turned raw and uneven. "If you had asked me, I would have said 'yes'. But not anymore. Not now. Because, every time I look at you, all I can see is you and her. And I can't live with that. I can't live with a man who's had sex with my sister."

For the first time during the conversation, Sirius turned his head away. His eyes became wet and a lump had risen to his throat. Aimee saw it. Saw his glistening eyes, saw his shaky demeanour. Biting her lip, she walked slowly towards him. She took his hand in hers, gently pressing it with hers. Hand met hand; watery eyes met watery eyes.

Footsteps sounded. The door opened. "Times up," came Jack's gruff voice.

Sirius gazed up at Aimee, eyes desperately pleading. She looked away, wiping her eyes quickly, and walked over to the table in the middle of the room. A crumpled shirt lay in the middle: she picked it up and gave it to him.

"This is yours."

Sirius looked down at the clothing and back to her, shaking his head. "Aimee… don't do this."

"You're right. I do still love you. But you disgust me at the same time." As she spoke the latter statement, her reverted back to her original cold one. "And I know as well as I know myself, that I will never forgive you."

"Aimee… please."

"I want you out of my life. For good."

"Aimee… I love you. Don't… don't…"

"Goodbye, Sirius."

And she shut the door behind him.

Hey everyone! So, my first work on fanfiction... please leave a review and tell me what you think! Thank you for reading!

Erin X