"The worst thing you can do for love is deny it; so when you find that special someone, don't let anyone or anything to get in your way."

~XX~

"Number Eleven…Number Thirteen. Where's Number Twelve?" Laine asked. Apparently, she and her parents were being forced to move to a house that did not exist.

Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jaceson, who were active within the Order of the Phoenix, had been forced to pack up their suitcases after the Death Eaters had learned of their connections. So now they were to hide in an apartment at Grimmauld Place. An apartment that was obviously either invisible or not real in the first place.

Her father pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and read the words "Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place" out loud.

Laine watched, rather awestruck, as the row of dark houses in front of them actually moved, and another house appeared, a shiny brass number 12 on it's faded wooden door.

The family quickly picked up their suitcases and entered the front door.

Standing in the hallway was a tall man with shaggy black hair, a hollow, slightly sunken face, and the faint odor of alcohol about him. He had obviously once been very handsome, but now only vestiges of it remained.

"Evening, Sirius." her father said. "You've never met my daughter… this is Laine."

After making sure that Sirius and Laine were acquainted, her parents went upstairs to put their things away, leaving Sirius and Laine in the hall.

~XX~

Laine frowned and sniffed the air. "You smell foul. Have you washed recently?"

Sirius glared at her. "How often I wash is my business, and I'll thank you to keep out of it."

"A bit touchy, are we? Fine. I want a tour of this place." she said.

"Explore it yourself." he said.

"You're a rude man. I'm a new houseguest, you're generally supposed to be polite." she said, smiling at him for some strange reason.

"You said that I stunk." he said.

"Did I hurt your feelings? Well, I apologize. I still want a tour, though."

"Fine. Follow me."

He grumpily showed her through the house, pointing out various interesting objects.

"This is the doorknob that bites your hand if you touch it."

"That seems rather counterproductive. You can't even open the door." Laine observed, glancing over at Sirius.

"Yeah… I think it was supposed to be an anti-theft measure."

Laine's attention lit upon an old door with a brass nameplate bearing the name 'Sirius'.

"This is your room, then?" she asked.

"Oh, you can read. Excellent job."She ignored his sarcasm and opened the door, eyeing the pictures plastered over his wall. Muggle girls in tiny bikinis, and big motorcycles. Gryffindor banners hung across the ceiling.

"Lovely." Laine said.

"I can't take them down…"said Sirius. "I never thought I would be back here to regret putting all these up."

"No… it's very… charming. You know, if you're a hormone-crazed teenage boy."

"Right." he said.

That was their first meeting, and Sirius, while slightly taken aback by Laine's direct, blunt manner, found himself liking the girl who would be living in Grimmauld Place with him.

Laine, for her part, was merely determined to get Sirius to take a bath and shave.

~XX~

The first day she was there, Laine thought it would not be terrible to live at Grimmauld Place for so long.

As the days passed, though, she grew bored with the dark hallways and musty rooms. Visitors from the Order came every few days for meetings, but the rest of the time it was only Laine and her parents, Sirius, and a strange old house elf called Kreacher. Kreacher turned out to despise the Jaceson family, so Laine much of her time bothering Sirius.

She had finally convinced him that he did indeed stink, and she sniffed him as he emerged from the bathroom after taking a long bath at her insistence.

"Good. Now you don't smell like alcohol and old laundry. But you forgot to shave."

"I'm not shaving." he said flatly.

Two days later, though, he found himself being pushed into the bathroom by Laine, where she had laid out shaving tools.

"Okay, go ahead." she said. Sirius knew the annoying girl wouldn't stop bothering him until he obeyed, so after glaring at her, he began to shave the scraggly beard that he had allowed to grow on his face.

"There. Happy?" he said as he finished, wiping the last of the lather onto a towel.

Laine stood up and approached him, studying his face. "Hmm…" She raised a hand and felt his smooth cheek. "Yes, you look much better without that thing growing on your face."

Sirius removed her hand from his face and turned away. "It was a beard, not a thing." he said as they left the bathroom.

"Oh, was that what it was? A beard?"

~XX~

At the Order meeting that evening, they learned the Weasley family would be joining them at Grimmauld Place in a weeks time.

"Finally." Sirius said later to Laine. "Now you can stop bothering me all the time."

"Oh, Sirius. I'll never stop bothering you." she said. "We're best mates."

Damned insufferable girl, Sirius thought as she patted his head and ran up to her room for bed.

He consoled himself with the thought that in a week, she would have plenty of other people to bug incessantly and chatter endlessly to. As he lay down in his room, though, a strange bit of regret passed through him.

The girl was obviously growing on him.

~XX~

When the Weasleys came, after an initial few days in which Laine spent all her time with either Fred and George or Ginny or Ron, she returned to bothering Sirius.

"Weren't you supposed to leave me alone?" he asked as she barged in the door while he fed Buckbeak.

"Why would I? You're my best mate, like I said before." She seized the bag of food from Sirius and took over the feeding of Buckbeak.

"Lucky me." his voice was sarcastic, but Laine did not see the smile on his face as he said it.
Look at yourself, Sirius, he chided inside his head. You're actually glad that a silly girl barely out of Hogwarts is going to be your friend. Pathetic.

~XX~

Soon after the Weasleys had arrived, Harry Potter showed up at Grimmauld Place. Sirius was overjoyed to have his godson around, spending much of his time with the boy.

Laine did not begrudge him that terribly; instead, she took to playing pranks on everybody with Fred and George, and trying to eavesdrop on the Order meetings which her parents had forbidden her to be a part of.

Laine was not far from nineteen, so she supposed she could have insisted upon joining the Order. She did not particularly care to get involved, though, and much preferred a spot on the sidelines. It was far safer that way.

~XX~

Grimmauld Place was gloomy when the group eventually left for Hogwarts, and it seemed terribly quiet. Sirius had gone upstairs hours ago, probably to sulk. He had been moody the last few days, and Laine had decided that it was time for Sirius to cheer up again. She turned on the old radio in the parlor, blared it as loud as it would go, then waited for either her parents or Sirius to come and complain.

She didn't have to wait long until Sirius came stomping down the stairs, frowning.

"Your parents want you to turn the music down." he said.

"You'll see Harry at Christmas, you know." she said, not getting up from the sofa. Sirius had to strain to hear her words over the keening of some witch on the radio. "No need to pout."

"I wasn't pouting." he said as he walked over and turned the dial. The witch's singing grew immediately quieter. "I have a headache, which that music isn't helping."

"You were pouting because you wanted him expelled, and he wasn't." she said. "Hey, would you like to dance?"

"I didn't want him expelled. And no, I don't want to dance."

"You're starting to get on my nerves." Laine said.

"You say that like I should actually care." he said sharply. He wondered why Laine was acting as if they were just two good old friends who had attended school together.

Laine didn't seem offended. On the contrary, she smiled happily.

"Why are you smiling?" Sirius asked, rather confused.

"Because, now we're at the stage of a friendship where we bicker and fight because we've been around each other so often." she said.

"That's… completely ridiculous."

"Next, we'll be able to tell secrets to each other, and maybe even finish each others sentences." she smiled again at Sirius.

"Tell secrets to each other?" he asked faintly, having a bit of difficulty following her reasoning.

"Yes… like…" she leaned close to him and whispered in his ear, "When I was seven, I accidentally tripped in our living room, and I knocked down all of my mum's chinaware. I blamed it on our dog. Okay, your turn, Sirius."

He stood up. "I'm going upstairs."

Laine stood up too, a grin on her face. "Shall we have a pillow fight?"

"No."

~XX~

:D

Okay, this is the very first part for the story, and after this, it will be divided into four more chapters.

Please review… Reviews are like air to a writer.

Give me oxygen, dear readers!

~XX~