Hello, beauties. Here is the ever promised Chapter 7. I haven't gotten around to rereading OotP yet, so the dialogue is completely crap for this chapter in relation to the book, but it's close enough, I reckon - I mean, we can't all be Jo Rowling, can we? Fuck this, though, I'm updating a day early.

Thanks to Sleeplessdream50 for Story Alerting this fic.

Enjoy :)


The day before I left to start Fourth Year at Hogwarts, a letter had been left on my pillow. I'd been spending as much time as I could with Sirius, which was not much, but we'd spoken a lot about his past, and my childhood. We even spoke a little about Azkaban, but he grew very dark and even unresponsive when we turned to that corner of his life, so I decided to perhaps not explore that period. I turned my attention back to the letter. I looked at my name on the envelope and admired the handwriting. Whoever had written it had obviously had calligraphy classes, and it had definitely been a good investment. I thought for a second about who would be able to afford such a thing, and then I remembered whose house we were in. The Blacks had more money than sense and had had an enormous influence on the Wizarding World. Sirius.

"Well, well, well, Mr Black. What do we have here?" I murmured to myself.

"A letter, obviously." Sirius said from the doorway. I shrieked, dropping the letter and nearly jumping out of my skin. He burst into raucous, bark-like laughter, and two pillows smashed into each side of his head and burst, making feathers fly all over the room.

"I am so sorry, I didn't mean to do that. In my defence though, you did scare the shit out of me."

"Accidental magic. Smooth, babe."

"Don't you 'babe' me," I warned him, but I had a smile on my face. "Since when did you start calling me 'babe' anyway?"

He shrugged and repaired the pillows. "I thought I'd just try it out, I suppose."

"I believe I may miss you, Mr Black. Will you write me?" I asked, fiddling with the latch on my trunk. I didn't look up at him, though I felt the atmosphere in the room become tense.

"You understand that we can't write too much. The Muggles, and therefore the Ministry, will notice if there is a large amount of owls passing through here. Maybe once every few weeks?" Sirius said carefully. I sighed and faced him. And while Sirius stood there looking uncomfortable and slightly sad, a wand lit up in my mind.

"I suppose, of course, you could send your letters with Remus'. I know that he and Hermione write each other at least once a week," I supplied casually, though the smile on my face may have given me away. "And he sends and receives letters from his parents house in Devon, doesn't he? That's how he and Hermione got around it. Perhaps... perhaps Remus could do us this one favour. It's not much, just sending and receiving a thicker envelope, you know?"

Sirius sauntered over to me and put his hands on my waist. A sexy smirk was pulling up the corners of his beautiful mouth as I lay my hands on his forearms. "I think that's a brilliant idea, and we'd be able to talk more often. I perhaps wouldn't miss you so much, Miss Weasley."

As I tiptoed to lightly brush my lips against his, there was a loud click echoing around the room. My head snapped around to see where the noise had come from, and I spied Hermione leaning against the wall with a wizard camera in her hands.

"I thought it would be nice for you each to have a photo, you see. You can't be together, but at least this moment could have been captured, and you can both look back on it. Remus and I have one, and he gave me the idea, actually."

I stepped away from Sirius and hugged Hermione. "It was genius, thank you. When can we develop them?"

"Remus says that it can be done almost as soon as the photo is taken."


Teeth nibbled at my lower lip and I gasped, allowing a hot tongue to invade my mouth and dance a complicated dance with mine. Hands roamed over my body as Sirius' lips left mine in favour of exploring my neck in intimate detail. He lightly sucked the sensitive spot above my pulse point and I moaned, pushing my whole body up to press into Sirius' more firmly, and in return, he ground his hips sharply into mine. I could feel my stomach beginning to coil with tension, and I whimpered.

"Gin...?"

"Again, Sirius... please." I gasped, and then moaned as his hips rolled into mine yet again. I bit his bare shoulder and felt him push against me again before I shuddered and saw a blinding light. I felt something down my body pulsing and I vaguely heard myself yell out before Sirius collapsed on top of me.

"You... are you alright?" Sirius asked me, pushing my hair away from my damp forehead.

"I don't... what was that?" I asked as a small quiver rocked my body again.

"I believe, my love, that you just had your first orgasm. And you helped me have mine after more than a decade," said Sirius, sounding both reverent and smug at the same time. His breath was just as heavy as mine, and he was lightly panting. "Merlin, that was amazing, Ginny. It's the best I've ever had."

"Well, I've never had anything like that happen to me before, but that may have been the most incredible experience of my life so far." I said, rolling Sirius off of me (he's heavy, alright?) before curling up against him. And then I realised what he'd called me. "You just called me Ginny!"

"So I did, love. You are exquisite. And you've still got all your clothes on. No one has ever done that to me before." Sirius told me earnestly. I lazily kissed his neck and murmured agreement as I gently ran my fingertips up and down his washboard abdomen. I could easily feel his ribs, which made me frown slightly, but I could also feel slight muscle definition on his stomach.

"You're beautiful," I said serenely, feeling my eyelids droop.

I thought, before I fell asleep, that I heard Sirius say "so are you".


"Oh for heaven's sake, Sirius, no!" Mum said exasperatedly as Snuffles padded up to stand beside Harry. I looked down and grinned at the shaggy dog, who yipped playfully. After a minutes argument, Mum let Snuffles tag along, and we all watched as Snuffles chased pigeons, and his own tail, whilst running wild through the little square. I laughed along with everyone else, and we went on our way to King's Cross. I still had a slight headache, from where one of the trunks the twins were levitating crashed into my head and knocked me down a few fights of stairs. I touched the small bump on my head and thanked my stars that Mum was as good with healing charms as she was, or I'd be a lot worse off.

I ran through the barrier and waited nearby for the rest of my family to come through, watching the many students with their families. I waved to Luna and her father Xenophilius, who was the editor of The Quibbler, and I smiled at Neville Longbottom, who was nice, but so forgetful and really quite clumsy. I internally cringed at that thought when I considered my behaviour around Harry when he'd spent his first summer at my house. Soon enough, everyone had come through, and they joined me where I stood.

"You alright, Ginny?" Hermione asked, standing next to me on Platform 9¾. I looked at her and saw the same tightening around her eyes that I was feeling.

"Yeah. Long night with Remus?" I replied quietly. She nodded and smiled, though sadly. We stood and chatted for a minute until I looked at her again. "You're really going to miss him, aren't you?"

"I will, but then since we started writing each other last year, I've missed him much more than I felt I should have. I expect it will be the same for you, with Pads," said Hermione wisely. At that moment, Snuffles followed Harry out of the waiting room in Kings Cross, and trotted by Harry's side over to Hermione and I. While no one was looking, Snuffles nuzzled my hand, before licking my wrist. I patted his head and he whined softly, so that only I could hear.

The whistle to the scarlet train blew then, and we all piled onto the train. While Harry, Ron and Hermione went to their own carriage, as usual, I met Luna, Colin, Dennis and Amelia Johnson in another carriage. Dennis, Colin's brother, was only a Third Year, but he was very much a part of our 'group', and it was nice to hang out with my friends again after a summer apart.

"How was your summer, Gin?" Amelia asked. She was in my year, but she was a Ravenclaw, like Luna. She had long, chestnut hair that fell in loose curls that were any hair-dressers wet dream. Her eyes, however, were a beautiful sea-green, and she had a light smattering of freckles across her nose and cheekbones. As a girl, I could appreciate how beautiful she was without feeling the need to hit on her.

"It was alright. Same as usual, really," I replied.

"Was Harry Potter staying again?" Colin asked eagerly. He'd been absent-mindedly taking photos of us all, and passing passengers, and not really focussing on the conversation until my summer came up.

"He always does, Colin, you know this. Oh, the train is moving." I noted with an excited, though nervous, smile, and I watched as Snuffles ran alongside the train. We were in the carriage next to Hermione's, so we could clearly see the large black dog running as fast as he could alongside the train. I pressed my face up against the window, and smiled when the dog slowed down just enough to run alongside our carriage before barking playfully and then putting on a burst of speed, before falling behind as he reached the end of the platform. I waved to him sadly.

"Whose dog is that?" Amelia asked.

"I believe it belongs to either Harry Potter, Hermione Granger or Ronald Weasley, due to the fact that it was running parallel to their carriage," said Luna dreamily, reading her copy of The Quibbler. I snickered.

"I'm going to pop next door to talk to Harry for a minute, because Ron and Hermione are the new Gryffindor Prefects. I completely forgot about that. He'll probably be a bit lonely." I said, rising from my seat and leaving the carriage. I walked over, waving to Dean Thomas before ducking into Harry's compartment. I was surprised to see Neville there, but I smiled and greeted them.

"You alright, Harry?" I asked.

"Sure."

After a few minutes, Luna came in with mine and her bags and she settled down. "Hello, Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter."

"Hi, Luna," replied Neville happily, before he struck up a conversation about his new plant. I rescued us all when I realised that Harry and Luna hadn't officially met, so I interrupted Neville. I liked Neville, but him and his plants got on my bloody nerves sometimes.

"Er, Harry, I don't think you've met Luna Lovegood. She's a very good friend of mine and she's in my year, but she's a Ravenclaw." I said.

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure," sang Luna. Harry's cheeks coloured, and he rubbed the back of his neck the way he always did when he felt uncomfortable.

"Anyway," I said, "Luna, Harry; Harry, Luna."

"Nice to, er, nice to meet you Luna." Harry said.

Luna gazed at him for a long moment before replying, "Yes, it's rather pleasant to meet you also, Harry Potter."

I left the carriage on pretence of looking for the food trolley, while I really just went for a wander. It had never interested me much before, but suddenly it surprised me how easily the Hogwarts students found it to split into their houses. I passed a compartment full of Hufflepuffs who were literally sitting on each other's laps, and it honestly looked like half of their House was packed in there. I smiled at Emily Bannerman, who was in my Charm's class and moved along. I passed the Sixth year Slytherin compartment, where Blaise Zabini eyed me with interest before I swiftly strode past the cart. I heard Zabini snap at someone (presumably Crabbe or Goyle) even as I stopped outside Fred and George's compartment.

"Hello, boys," I said when I stepped inside. Lee Jordan quickly put the various parchments away and I narrowed my eyes. "What are you lot up to?"

"Nothing, little sister. Not going to rat us out to Mum now, are you?" George asked. I glared at him as I smacked him upside the head.

"You know full well that wasn't my fault. What was I supposed to do? Pretend my skull wasn't cracked because your fucking trunk slammed into it?" I asked loudly. I wasn't quite shouting, but my voice wasn't at a normal level either. All three of them looked stunned. "What? Have I grown a third nostril?"

"No... you swore. Since when were you such a badass?" Lee asked. He looked extremely impressed and I flashed him a small smile.

"Thanks, Lee. If you two try and have another dig at me like that again, you'll regret it." I said, not hiding the cool edge to my voice.

"Oh yeah?" Fred replied, snorting with laughter.

I drew my wand and aimed it at his nose. Before he could react, I'd cast the Bat-Bogey Hex and he had black flapping wings protruding from his nose and I laughed while Fred shrieked. "I told you."

"Get it off!" Fred yelled and I smirked before leaving the compartment and heading back to my own. I threw open the door and went to sit down in my seat before I realised someone was already in it.

"Hullo, Hermione. How did the meeting go?"

"It was... interesting. Guess who the Slytherin Prefects are?" Hermione replied, shuffling over so I could sit beside her. I flashed her a grateful grin.

"Malfoy and Parkinson!" Ron growled. I raised my eyebrows.

"Why them? Why not Zabini and Greengrass? They seem like they'd be much better as prefects." I asked.

"I think money had a little something to do with it," said Harry bitterly. I knew he was a little pissed off about not making Prefect when my idiot brother did, and I sympathised. Of course he was angry, I probably would have been if I were in his position.

"No, Harry. Dumbledore wouldn't be bought like that. He's an honourable man, and he's not likely to rise to a bribe of all things. Especially from Lucius Malfoy." Hermione contradicted. "Maybe Dumbledore just thought they were the best for the job."

"Right, because they're going to be unbiased," said Ron sarcastically.

"Perhaps Professor Dumbledore's brain has been infested with Wrackspurts." Luna added dreamily. I felt Hermione tense beside me, and I bit the insides of my cheeks to keep from laughing.

"Don't be ridiculous. There are no such thing as Wrackspurts," snapped Hermione. "You're making things up, or you're just dense enough to believe what's written in that rubbish magazine."

Luna rose from her seat. "My father is the editor of that 'rubbish magazine', as you call it." Her voice had lost its dreamy quality and sounded icy. I stared after her in shock as she left the compartment – in the more than ten years I had known her, she had never spoken to anyone like that. Neville caught my eye and raised his eyebrows, clearly thinking the same thing I was.


October 3rd, 1995.

Ginevra,
Merlin, I miss you. It's only been a few weeks, but the last time I felt so empty was when I was in Azkaban. I can't stop thinking about you, and I can still smell you on my pillow. If I didn't have that photo of us, I fear I'd forget what you look like. I can't wait to see you again, which will be at Christmas. Molly let slip that you would all be here. Of course, she has no idea about us. Well, I wouldn't have the chance to write you if she did know – because I would be dead. You should also know that I charmed all of the letters so only you can read them. I'm not entirely sure if I mentioned it before, but now you know.
I still can't forget the night before you left to go back to school. You were amazing, Ginevra, and I swear I've never felt this way before. I can't even explain it, but it's so intense, the way I feel about you. I'd say I love you if I wasn't so afraid of you disappearing from my life. In my experience, nothing good can come of telling a person you love them in a totally non-platonic way, and sometimes, even if it is platonic. I just don't want to lose you, because you may be one of the best things to ever happen to me.
Resolutely not saying the 'l' word,
Sirius.

I felt triumphant in a euphoric way. Sirius Black, ex womaniser and escaped convict, loved me, and the thought made me feel incredibly homesick. However, homesick had suddenly not been a desire to visit the Burrow, it had been a desperation to see Sirius. What was that phrase Hermione had once told me? 'Home is where the heart is'. That's about right, actually, I thought with a small smile.


What did you think? Let me know, because reviews are the biscuits I have with my tea :) so until next Tuesday,

Lottie.