Susannah left the hospital wing around thirty minutes later, hobbling with a bandaged foot and crutches. Sirius popped out as the doors of the infirmary closed – clearly unwilling to go to lessons if he didn't have to. Awkwardly he tried to figure out how best to help her without interfering with the crutches. In pity she let her satchel slide down her arm for him to carry.

"There we go! I'll just take this. So what's wrong then?" He asked concernedly. Susannah smiled, he had always been too overprotective of her – she supposed it was the deaf thing.

"It's nothing really, just a couple of broken bones on the top of my foot – I didn't want to spend Friday night in the Hospital Wing so she said she could strap it up and it would be better in a few days." Sirius "ummed" and "ahhed" appropriately, placing his hand on her lower back and guided her towards the common room – clearly they were not going to Divination.

"Christian Dior" he called out to the Fat Lady's portrait, Susannah sniggering at the hilarity or her and Lily's choice for the password this year. Sirius dashed ahead and plumped the pillows up on the Marauder's first choice of couch in front of the fireplace, she smiled at him.

"What did I ever do to deserve you?" She asked him as she sat on the sofa, foot resting on Sirius' lap.

"I don't know m'dear, maybe it's time you started earning your keep?" He asked cheekily leaning over her outstretched leg to kiss her.

"Owowowow!"" She yelped, "My foot, you're crushing my foot!"

After many apologies later the common room door finally swung open as Gryffindors filed in after a long and hard week of school. Eventually Susannah found herself surrounded by the friends she loved and relaxed in their company. Lily replaced Sirius at her feet, whilst Sirius moved to rest Susannah's head on his lap, James sat on Lily's feet and Remus on the floor next to Suze, reading out the Divination notes he'd taken for her. Peter scurried between different ends of the couch – desperate not to be ignored.

As the afternoon wound down, Suze realized, as Sirius played idly with her hair, Remus conversed intelligently about various passions and Lily read a book propped on her good foot, with James looking up at his goddess with adoring eyes, that this was a truly perfect moment – broken bones and all.

A few hours later they trudged slowly down towards dinner, talking animatedly what they planned to do on the weekend seeing as it was the penultimate Hogsmeade trip before they broke up for Christmas. Despite some worry from Lily over Susannah foot they resolved to spend the entire day in Hogsmeade – pushing homework off til Sunday, much to the dismay of Lily and Remus. As much as Suze loved James and Lily together, she couldn't help but wonder at times how those two had never had a thing for one another.

Susannah feeling that she was headed for a "Sirius Overdose" if she spent much more time with him today, decided to sit with Remus and Lily for dinner. They sat, happy to chat away about current events and idle gossip about students and teachers alike. As Suze was still picking away at her treacle pudding, Dumbledore stood up and called for the attention of his students.

"Good evening all. I wish I was just wishing you a joyful weekend, but alas my tidings are not so happy. As many of you will know Lord Voldemort," Some of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws shuddered slightly at the name whilst some Slytherins twitched nervously, "has begun his attempt to seize power through a reign of both terror and madness. I do not wish to frighten students so close to the holidays but I must warn you to stay in the company of those you trust and not to stray too far from safety." With that his eyes twinkled again, "Have a most pleasant weekend."

As the Gryffindors made their way back to the common room the seventh years could feel the first ripples of unease in the students and couldn't help but be influenced themselves. Susannah recalled a conversation that she had overheard between Dumbledore and McGonagall the week before, all she could really remember was the frightened tone of her Transfiguration teacher and the unusually forceful tone in her headmaster's voice: "Minerva, we are on the brink of war." Susannah shuddered and made her way for Sirius, whose black hair she could see in the crowd ahead. She wanted to say goodnight to him before he went to detention, having been let off herself after her trip to Pomfrey.