A/N: Thanks to everyone who has already read this story, I appreciate every one of you! I'm back with a slight facelift to chapter 1, so I hope you enjoy! Reviews are always appreciated :)

All recognizable characters etc are the property of JK Rowling

I befriended Sirius Black in my third year at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. Among my friends, I was the only one who elected to take arithmancy, and on my first day in the class, I was beginning to sense doom and terror in my arithmancy future.

I eyed the Slytherins in the corner cautiously as I sat by myself in Professor Vector's classroom. I was not too optimistic about the prospect of spending to years in a classroom without anyone I knew, and the other students in the classroom didn't seem to offer much in the way of comraderie. Aside from the four Slytherins in the corner, there were a group of five Ravenclaws occupying the front row; no space for me there. A little behind me sat three Hufflepuffs, who in all likelihood wouldn't mind me, but seemed to be pretty close already. So, I prepared myself for the next two years, as professor vector started the class.

She was describing assessment as four familiar faces crashed into the classroom one after the other.

"Very sorry we're late professor," said James Potter.

He was interrupted by Sirius Black, who was pushing in behind him. "Yes, terribly sorry-"

"We were intercepted by peeves, you see," James continued.

"It's true, we were," said Remus Lupin, who had come up beside them.

Peter Pettigrew was the last one to enter the classroom, and he did so looking absolutely befuddled. "He jumped us in the corridor-" he trailed off, looking weakly into the distance.

"I'm afraid Pete's a little harrowed, Professor," said Sirius, "Peeves hung him on the wall by his robes."

"It took us 15 minutes to get him down," Remus supplied helpfully. He clapped Peter on the shoulder lightly, and Peter jumped a little.

"Just sit down boys," Professor Vector held up her hands to quiet them, "the lesson has already begun."

"Thank you Professor," said Remus, as he looked around the classroom for a place to sit. I looked down quickly to avoid his eyes, as I hadn't spoken to any of them much. When he spotted me by myself, he gave James and Sirius a little push and they started towards where I was sat; Peter trailed after them, still looking a little shook.

I felt relief flooding me as they sat down on my row, Remus and Peter on one side of me, James and Sirius on the other.

"Hi," James whispered to me as professor Vector continued her description of the course, "sorry about that." He smiled easily at me, and I felt some of my nervousness ease away.

"Don't be," I whispered back lowly, "we all know Peeves; once he broke into our dorm and turned all of our clothing pink." I shrugged.

James grinned, and next to him, Sirius leant over to join the conversation. "I remember that, you all wore pink robes for like three days." He smiled fondly at the memory. "I always thought that was a fashion statement."

James and Remus chuckled lowly, as I shook my head, "no, we just couldn't work out how to undo it," I explained, "took McGonagall a good few days to figure it out." I was doodling absentmindedly on the parchment I had gotten out to takes notes on. "And I'm pretty sure she had to strike some sort of deal with Peeves to do it," I added as an afterthought.

The boys chortled at the image of a frustrated McGonagall making a deal with Peeves the poltergeist for the release of the clothing he had taken hostage.

"Speaking of your dorm," James said (in one of the least smooth transitions since they replaced The Doctor), "your friends not taking arithmancy?"

I bit my lip to contain a giggle. James was so painfully obvious about his crush on Lily it was funny. Next to him I heard Sirius snort to himself. "No," I said, "only me."

"Ah well," Remus bumped my shoulder lightly, "I guess you're stuck with us then."

And that was it; the boys, for all their flaws (you know, the pranks and the backtalk and light stalking of brilliant red-heads), were nice. They accepted me easily, and did not at any point attempt to humiliate, hex, ridicule or stalk me, and in third year, let me tell you, I was grateful.

The story of how I fucked up my friendship with Sirius Black, however is a bit more complicated. You see, in my fifth year, after I had been friends with Sirius Black for two and a half years, and realized how amazingly gorgeous he really was, I became hopelessly smitten. This was a big problem for me, as I had been watching him since second year being an absolute heartbreaker, and it had been quite a point of pride with me how absolutely not smitten I was. But halfway through fifth year I began to notice things. Little things about him, like how he'd reach over for a sip of my coffee, and then frown and complain about the taste. Or how he'd throw the boys a thumbs up when one of them was talking to a girl they fancied (more often than not, the boy in question was James in yet another attempt at chatting up Lily). Or how he'd radiate death at any student who tried to hex a first or a second year. I couldn't help but to notice them. It's the sort of thing that's wont to happen when you're a teenager and you're friends with guy that oozes charisma out the backend. So I noticed them, over and over, and I wanted desperately to stop, because I knew that the day I fancied Sirius Black would be the end of my life as I knew it.

…

"It's the end of my life as I know it!" I groaned as threw myself theatrically down on my bed in the dorm I shared with my friends.

"Don't you think you're being a tiny bit dramatic?" Lily Evans, head-girl, smarty-pants, redhead and current (cough *eternal* cough) object of James Potter's affection, raised her eyebrows at me from where she was perched on her bed.

"Um, no, actually, I'm being very, very accurate." I turned my face into my pillow and screamed a little, you know- for effect. "I can't believe I snogged Sirius-fucking-Black! I'm never living this down!"

"Nope," agreed Lily.

"Never," said Jemma Walker unhelpfully without so much as looking up from her book. I threw my pillow at her, but the bloody chaser she was she ducked it without having to even look at me. "Hey!" she said, "it's not my fault you snogged Sirius Black, that was your own marvelous making."

Emily McNeely came out of the bathroom with her toothbrush in her mouth. She muttered something unintelligible as a bit of toothpaste came out the corner of her mouth. She must have seen the exasperated looks on our faces, as she rushed back into the bathroom and remerged, sans toothbrush.

"Sirius Black did help a little," she grinned, and her eyes gleamed evilly. I was going to murder the lot of them.

"Look," Lily said, as I seethed quietly without looking at them. "Don't worry about it too much. You're friends. You'll work something out."

Emily grinned again: "ah, but the problem is, Lils, Maggie doesn't want to work it out. She just wants to snog Sirius again."

I sat up and glared at her. "Jemma, please pass me my pillow so I can throw it at Emily."

Jemma shook her head and smirked, "nope, not helping."

I groaned and lay back on my bed again. And bumped my head, stupid Jemma.

"How the bloody hell I am supposed to act around him now? He'll realize I like him," I was beginning to feel stressed (more stressed, really, let's be honest here, I wasn't exactly relaxed before), "it's going to ruin our friendship, and that's going to ruin my friendship with the boys, and your friendship with the boys…" I stopped for a second as I realized something: "Lily is never going to get with James now! What have I done?!"

"Ehem, Lily neverwas going to get with James, thank you very much. And calm down, you're being ridiculous!" Lily looked at me scoldingly, like I was a first-year who had snuck out after curfew, and she was giving me a detention.

"Okay, don't think I'm forgetting about Mag's situation here, because I'm not," Jemma finally looked up from her book to look at me. Then she turned her eyes on Lily, "but did I just hear you saying you are never getting with James Potter? Ever?" Her eyes were sparkling teasingly at Lily. "As in you don't blush every time the conversation turns to him?"

Lily blushed again. "I do not!"

I laughed, "actually, Lils, you're doing it right now."

"Oh, bog off, the lot of you!" Lily's hands flew to cover her crimson cheeks. "I think we're losing sight of the conversation at hand here," she said, "which is Maggie snogged Sirius Black and now her life as she knows it is over." I glared at her. "Hey, your words, not mine! And anyway, I think you're overreacting."

Overreacting? I think not. The things I had said really were real concerns… I valued my friendship with Sirius (the rest of the boys as well, of course, but that's not the point) and I was convinced that after what had happened he would start looking at me differently. The thing about snogging a friend (especially one you fancy) is that it is almost always awkward afterwards. And I wasn't wrong about the awkward part. Sirius, who was usually quick-witted and ever-present, had barely spoken to me since returning to school. He and the boys went and sat somewhere else on the train, and during the feast, he had sat four seats down from me and only spoken to me when addressing the group.

Blimey, crushes are hard.

…

Okay, so you're probably thinking that I missed a part of the story, right? Don't worry, I´ll fill you in.

James Potter, absolute doofus; eternally gone for one Lily Evans; (in one incredibly unbelievable turn of circumstances) head boy, and my friend, came from a family of a great hair-care fortune. As such, his parents had a big house in which our story begins.

I am the youngest among my friends, my birthday being on August 24th, and when I came of age in the summer of 1977, he insisted on having a party at his own house to celebrate, and for, a "spectacular night of revelry and mauradery before our return to Hogwarts where we'll be enslaved by our NEWTs" (I'm not joking, it was word-for-word on the actual invitation; bit of a posho, James is). So on august 24thwe all made the trip to Potter house to revel and maraud.

(dramatic flashback ripple across the screen)

Lily appeared in cloud of auburn hair, and beamed at me. She had to come and collect me, seeing as I was the only one without an apparition license. She greeted me, and my slightly baffled parents; after all, it's not every day you see a teenage girl appear out of nowhere, and they never got quite used to it. I chose Lily for a reason though; the fact that she was muggleborn as well meant she could communicate easily with my parents, and understood where they came from.

After a brief chat and various warnings and urgings ("don't drink too," "much only drink drinks you've poured yourself,"etc., etc.) we bode my parents goodbye, and set off to the Potters.

"Blimey," said Lily as we appeared outside the house on the photograph in her hands. "I mean, I knew he was rich, but…" she trailed off.

She was right; I really hadn't been expecting this. The picture was impressive enough, but standing in the driveway I felt rather like I was going to court. The house, while not absolutely enormous screamed wealth. It had all of those posh-house things like columns, a line-moved law, iron gates and a driveway larger than my house. We approached carefully, as if we were in the wrong place, and knocked on the door with unsure hands.

The door swung open dramatically. Inside, there was absolute silence, which, based on past Potter-party experience was very, very unusual. "Hello?" I called hesitantly into the void.

And it exploded with a shouted mix of:

"Surprise!"

"Happy birthday!"

"Ouch, you stepped on my foot,"

and "Lily's here!"

James ignored the snubbed face of Remus Lupin clutching his foot and put a birthday hat on my head with a massive grin. "Were you surprised?" He asked and looked at me mirthfully.

"James you invitedme here. For my birthday party, you breadhead."

"I knew, I totally knew it! You totally didn't see it coming!" He gave me a quick hug, and I rolled my eyes. This he did not notice however, as his attention had turned to Lily. With a slightly cooler tone of voice he greeted her. "Lily," he bowed slightly (yes, really) at her and cleared his voice a little awkwardly, "I'm glad you could make it." He clapped his hands together excitedly, "can I get you lovely ladies anything to drink?" And I'd be damned if I didn't see a hint of a blush in Lily's cheek.

The party really was a blast; they had gotten alcohol by the crate, invited all of our friends, put snacks out on every surface, and had, for the occasion of my birthday, gotten their hands on a large amount of muggle-music, which they played intermittently with wizards-classics.

I was sat on the carpeted floor in a corridor on the third story when Sirius found me. I could hear the steady beat from the music on the ground floor, and felt my head spinning slightly on accord of the firewhiskey James had so kindly treated me to. "There you are, honeybear!" He looked me over and grinned. "Are you pissed?" He thumped down next to me on the carpet.

"I'm allowed," I said, "I'm seventeen, remember?" I looked at him lazily. It was absolutely ridiculous how good he looked even after the dancing, drinking and sweating. Somehow his hair looked just as perfect as ever; I wanted to reach out and touch it.

"Hey, I'm not criticizing. You can do what you want. Also, I might be a slightly bit drunk myself," he grinned. "Why are you all the way up here tough, aren't you having fun? We miss you down there."

I smiled, and felt my face warm slightly. "I am," I said, "I'm having loads of fun. I just needed a minute for my head to slow down." I leaned back against the wall for a minute and looked up at the ceiling. "And also," I added, "this house is fucking massive, and I needed to test my hypothesis that it is actually infinite."

He laughed. "You're such a nerd." He bumped my shoulder. "What did you conclude then?"

I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the effect his laugh had on me. "I haven't actually gotten to that yet…" I stroked the carpet absentmindedly, "I had to touch the carpet. It looked so soft…"

"It is extraordinarily soft…"

"Hey, thanks for playing my favorite music, snugglebums."

"Anything for you, love-muffin," he smiled crookedly at me in that beautifully dangerous way of his, and my head started to spin faster. I clamped my eyes shut, willing my heart to slow down. Had I been slightly drunker, I might have leaned over and kissed him then. But I didn't, and I thanked myself for being sensible enough not to drink too heavily in such close proximity to him.

"You know, I actually quite like your music," he mused, "I only started listening to it to irritate Walburga, but it is quite good. James was all for it of course. Probably thought it would help him get Lily the poor bugger."

I started giggling uncontrollably. It really was absolutely hilarious. "I think she's actually starting to fancy him you know," I gasped and clamped my hand over my mouth. Okay, so maybe I was a little drunker than previously thought. "You mustn't tell them I said that," I said and started giggling again. "Lily would murder me in my sleep. And probably get away with it too."

"I won't," he assured me. Then he shook his head disbelievingly, a wide grin across his face. "I can't believe it. He actually wore her down, and here we've all been thinking him delusional. In the best way possible, of course."

"Of course," I agreed solemnly. "Love him to bits, obsessive tendencies and slight stalking aside." Although, I mused to myself, he really had toned it down as of late. "I think it must be because he's pulled back a bit."

"That's what Remus told him to do" Sirius said. We fell silent for a bit.

"How's your head?" he asked after a while.

"Slowing down," I said, "I think I might be ready to go back downstairs now."

"What about your hypothesis?"

"Never mind that. I can't really think about infinity at the moment."

He stood up easily (almost), and reached out his hand for me to grasp with a court bow: "mi'lady?"

I put my hand in his and sighed dramatically. "Be still my heart!" (Hey, he didn't need to know that I actually wasn't joking.) He pulled me upright, and I must have overestimated the extent to which my head had slowed down, as I stumbled and fell right into his arms. I was suddenly very aware of the close proximity in which we now found ourselves. Apparently, so was Sirius. My heart went into overdrive as he adjusted his grip on me and put his hand on my cheek.

I looked into his eyes (dreamy and grey and oh, so Sirius) and tried to reassemble the shattered remains of my common sense. I could swear he was leaning in closer, and it was making it very hard, so I looked down. "I think this is a mistake," I said and immediately I regretted it; here I had been dreaming of kissing Sirius Black for seven months, and now I was throwing my chance out the window. My common sense butted in for a minute to remind me that kissing him was going to ruin our friendship, and that he probably didn't fancy me and the he didn't do relationships, and my resolve strengthened a little.

"You're probably right," he said. He didn't let go of me. "We'd probably regret it…" His hand that had been on my cheek had moved slowly to brush a bit of renegade hair out of my face.

"Exactly!" I ran my hands up from where they had gripped his shoulders when I fell, down to his chest. "And it'd be awkward, and…"

"And our friends would never let us forget it…" his eyes darkened slightly, and they flicked down for a moment before I met his gaze again.

He was leaning in closer. I was leaning in closer, while my common sense sat in the back of my head, shouting for me to stop looking in his fucking eyes. When I moved my hands slightly where they were on his chest, and felt his muscles tense under my grip, I could actually hear my common sense huffing in indignation and walking away. Sod it all.

And that is when I kissed Sirius Black. And Sirius Black kissed me.

My mind racing and my heart hammering, I felt his lips moving languidly with mine. Above all the noise, everything in that moment was just Sirius; when he pulled me closer, when his hand moved to tangle in my hair, when his tongue grazed my lips, everything was just so fundamentally Sirius and I knew I could never look at him the same.

His lips moved to my jaw, and I felt a low moan escape me as my stomach surged. Sirius growled low in his throat and pushed me backwards until my back was against the wall. I lost myself in him.

I don't know how long we were there, but a distant voice pulled my out of my Sirius (okay, and partly firewhiskey) induced haze.

"Maggie! Where the fuck are you?"

I pulled back from Sirius quickly having forgotten, of course, that I was pressed up against a wall. My head hit the wall with a loud thump. Sirius looked at me in shock, before he collected himself. "Mags, are you okay?" he looked concerned. My mind had been snapped back to reality, and the magnitude of what had just happened was just dawning on me, and I started to feel slightly panicked. I could still hear Jemma calling for me somewhere, my head was aching dully and Sirius was still looking at me intently, with something I couldn't place.

"Oh god," I said slowly, "oh god, what in the fucking hell did we just do!"

"Maggie-"

"No, look Sirius, you don't have to say anything, okay." I turned away slightly, not being able to look him in the eye. My mind was reeling, I had to get away. "You don't have to say anything; look, this was obviously a mistake. I'm going to find Jemma." I picked my shoes up from the floor where I had taken the off earlier, and left down the hall without looking at him again.