Chapter Two

July 1st, 1976

Sirius was back at the diner and sitting in the same booth, the faded teal vinyl seat of which he had dripped all over three nights prior. After he had dried up a bit, he had talked more with the woman who had first showed him the booth.

Stout and scatterbrained with flyaway hair that constantly forced its way onto her caring face, her name was Susan Boyd, and she and her husband, Martin Boyd, owned the diner. She had hovered all over Sirius, not allowing him to leave until he had eaten at least three slices of pie, all awhile fretting over the state of his clothing and inquiring about how he had ended up at their doorstep.

Not quite sure how to explain himself, he had decided to go with the simplest explanation possible: his motorbike's engine had turned to rubbish. He had not mentioned that it had been hit by a flying hex delivered by a few old family friends about an hour or so before his arrival, which had resulted in the gradual death of the motor, nor did he mention that he had been, himself, flying the motorbike along London at the time. Sirius had also felt the fact that he was a teenaged wizard could also go unmentioned to the muggle woman. Some things were just best left unsaid.

Nevertheless, he had used as much non-magical charm as he could muster to coax the woman into letting him keep his motorbike propped up against the curb, next to the diner's back parking lot and rubbish cans, until he could get it up and running. It was the simplest solution. Sirius had been far too fatigued to drag the bike anywhere. More importantly, it had still been raining, and he wasn't quite sure where the diner was in relation to his flat. He would have to find a way to transport it later.

Meanwhile, he had waited until they had all left until he flagged down the Knight Bus, something he had foolishly forgotten was an option when he had been roaming around through the torrential downpour, and used it to get to his small, recently acquired and barely furbished flat in London.

Sirius had then made a quick stop by floo powder to his best mate's house for some extremely necessary ranting. James had been a good sport about it, and, even though he could not understand any of the particulars of Sirius's story due to the amount of grunting and mumbling and then yelling and cursing Sirius was doing in an illogical, roundabout fashion, he nodded and grimaced at all the appropriate intervals and later offered Sirius some more firewhiskey.

A part of Sirius wished that he could forever stay at the Potters, but he was much too proud to squander off their hospitality indefinitely. His parents had at least instilled that into his head.

So, apart from the times he was visiting his friends, he lived, alone and utterly bored, inside a small, barely furbished flat, thoughts of his broken flying motorbike weighing heavily on his mind.

After a quick trip to Gringotts to exchange some of his gleaming galleons, sickles, and knuts for fragile-looking slips of paper called "pounds," of all things, he had been to Marty's two additional times in the past few days. On the first occasion he had just gone to try and pay the people back for their generosity, which was shooed away immediately by Susan, who proclaimed, "how can we call ourselves good servants of the Lord if we don't help out the occasional stray sheep when he stumbles through our door?"

Sirius had nodded and pretended as though he understood what she was saying. The Bible's contents were completely alien to him; he had never been one for faith.

Susan then insisted that Sirius be allowed to keep his motorbike out back for as long as he needed to get it running again, even offering to call up some good mechanics for him.

He had politely declined the offer, not wanting to see some bloke's face when he inevitably tested the extra clutch and saw the gigantic bike propel into the air. Plus, he really preferred that the bike be moved somewhere more stable.

Unfortunately, the diner was nearly twenty-five kilometers from his flat, and it would be much too difficult to push a very heavy motorbike that great of a distance. He did not own or know how to operate a car, which he presumed would be different to operate than a motorbike. Floo powder was useless because the muggle diner, which not only did not have any fireplaces, was not attached to the network. When he had asked, the Knight Bus conductor told him that it was against its policy to transport such large vehicles, and Sirius was still not allowed to do magic outside school until he came of age in a few months.

Thus, he had come back to the diner the previous day to put a lock on his bike that was impervious to all unlocking charms and then ordered another slice of that chocolate crème pie.

Today, he had ordered a steak and kidney pie. To his misfortune, it was the tall boy who brought out the dish and not the girl he had met before.

"Anything else I can get you?" the teen asked brusquely as he put the hot plate in front of Sirius.

Sirius's eyes immediately flicked over to where the girl was counting money at the register. A few thoughts swirled around in his mind, and his eyes twinkled with his private joke.

Her eyes looked up and she noticed his gaze before hurriedly looking back down, a pinkness forming on her cheeks.

Sirius turned his eyes back to the boy. It took all his self-discipline to murmur back an appropriate response.

The older boy, presumably named Johnny, as indicated by the nametag perched on his chest, grunted before heading off. "Eliza!" he called as he meandered through the tables. "Go stock the new inventory in the back."

The girl sighed from behind the register and then, with one last, unabashed peek at Sirius, disappeared from view.

Sirius felt as though he would have enjoyed his meal much more if she had still been there. She was very enjoyable wall décor. Plus, Sirius had always found that girls were far more interesting until you got to know them. Then, he found he was mostly disappointed and often bored.

Nevertheless, once he had finished and the ever-pleasant Johnny had brought his check, Sirius had paid-making sure to leave a very generous tip that about doubled his check and would more than pay for his previous, free meal-and started heading out the door.

"Wait, love!" called a familiar frantic voice as he reached out to grasp the door handle.

He turned around on his heel obediently.

Susan Boyd, her brown her flying everywhere, rushed over to him. "Can't let you leave without saying goodbye," she insisted.

Sirius was slightly startled by this proclamation. He barely knew this woman, and she was treating him like an old friend, or perhaps, a member of the family.

"How was lunch?"

"Excellent," he answered matter-of-factly.

She smiled at him and then reached up significantly to pat him on the shoulder. "Good boy," she stated warmly.

Sirius stared at her in puzzlement. He had never met a woman quite like her-sans one, but she was his best friend's mum, and Susan was barely more than a stranger. He was not accustomed to adults caring genuinely for his well-being.

"You'll be back tomorrow, I suppose?"

Sirius thought briefly before nodding. With Peter and Remus currently on holiday abroad, he did not want to spend the entire summer haunting the Potters. He might as well work on the bike so that he could finally ride it home.

"Of course, you'll be wanting to fix up your motorbike. It's a real beauty, I must say. Where'd you get it?"

"Store," he replied.

Susan hesitated momentarily before chortling. "Funny lad," she commented as she lightly pinched his face.

Sirius swallowed uncomfortably and was grateful when she backed away and could no longer reach him.

"Take care, dear."

Sirius nodded once more and looked around to see if the girl had come back into the dining section.

She had not, and he briefly wondered why he even cared.

It was not as though she was more attractive than any of the girls he went to school with. On the contrary, she probably ranked about average in comparison.

Sirius had never had difficulty with girls. At school he could be likened to something of a commodity. In fact, females had been so openly interested in him since he hit puberty that they had loss their appeal. While enjoyable at first, eventually they had made Siriusbecome jaded and disenchanted with the lot of them. It was all very irksome to listen to their insipid chatter and inane giggles. A bird was a bird, and there was always a flock around.

Sirius had no patience for putting up with such a nuisance just for a lousy snog. That behavior was reserved for blokes like Wormtail.

He mumbled a quick goodbye and then left the diner.

A/N: Bonjour.

I'm going to be one of THOSE people right now and do this:

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to the following for reviewing the first chapter:

cylobaby, Claire Lafleur, Hermione Potter452, MissGoalie75, lizzle1661, isigirl, Sam Storsky, jerseyklutz13, XxXLeanneXxX, BookishBeauty94, Muggleborn-Meghan1992, booklover1998, Foxtail-Padfoot, WantsToBeAWriter13, MrsHill3609, killerbunny117, farrahness, N, Jene, SilverScorpion, LikeAVision, Artemis Fei, crazyelf22, JamesandLilyLover, EmeraldFlower, KneelBeforeTodd, Shannon Bananon, PretzelofFate, tastemylip, ElvesWizardsCentaursOhmy, and Snaps07.

I don't normally list reviewers like this (mostly because I find it annoying), BUT, I really do especially appreciate all 32 of you. I've never written a non-James/Lily story before. In fact, this story is very different from anything I've ever done. I was really nervous about it actually (it's weird how I still get very self-conscious about new projects even after all the stories I've written). But you all were truly wonderful and supportive and encouraged me to feel less like an overwhelmed idiot. So, truly, thank you.

Also, I've made two versions of a banner for this story, but can't decide which one to use. Both are on my twitter page. Please tell me which one you like better! Enjoy your Friday!

Yours,

Molly