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'I don't believe you,' Maddie repeats for the fourth time. She's very stubborn. Sigh.

'For the last time, I am going to the Ball with Sirius Black,' I say tiredly.

'And you agreed to be his girlfriend,' Jelly says slowly.

'Yes,' I agree cautiously.

'Sirius Black,' she checks.

'Yes.'

'Well.' Jelly flicks back her straight light brown hair and looks me in the eyes. Her brown iris' shine and her mouth twitches into a smile. 'You all know what that means,' she says.

'Oh, shopping!' Maddie cheers, forgetting her previous worries.

'Oh, the joy,' Tessie groans, dropping her head into her hands, hiding her face, so that all that can be seen is a tangle of wheat coloured hair.

'We can go to Hogsmeade today and look around for the dresses. We've all got dates so all that's left is the outfits and make up,' Jelly says briskly.

'Our area of expertise,' Maddie chips in.

'It's half ten now. They don't go down to the village until twelve. If we get ready now, we'll be ready to walk down,' Jelly continues.

'I hope ye find something nice to wear,' I say gloomily.

'Nuh-uh,' Maddie objects. 'Tessie's already showered and dressed. She'll go with you to the owlery.'

Seeing the confused look on my face, Jelly sighs and turns to the door of the library. Before leaving, she looks back over her shoulder at us, a sarcastic smirk on her pretty face.

'To ask for mummy's permission.'

Dear mum,

Long time, no see! Or hear or write or anything! Sorry about that, I was really busy. As I'm sure you've heard. I assume Dumbledore's given you the full story by now.

Anyhow, I'm back in school now. I'm settling in fine. I miss my friends, but I've made some really good new ones, (I'm sure you've heard I've been sorted into Gryffindor). It sure is a lot faster to get into the common room now than in ravenclaw! A password is so much easier than having to figure out an answer to a riddle.

There's a Christmas Ball coming up in December. Everyone's going and there's a lot of stress in the dormitory as it gets closer. My friend Lily has been searching all week for a pair of earrings she's lost. I suppose Hogsmeade is doing very well, what with all the people down their shopping for dresses and suits and the like.

I have yet to get a dress for the night (which is in 17 days). Do you think you could write to Professor McGonagall and give me permission to go to Hogsmeade? I really need to get an outfit soon.

I've really missed you and all the gang! How's dad? And Paul? Is he still with May? Say hello to them all and give them my love.

I better go now, I've got a Charms essay to write.

I love you loads!

Talk soon,

Amy.

Xx

'There, how's that?' I hold the letter out to Tessie to read over.

'Perfect. You mentioned it discreetly. That was good. Now, let's send it!' Tessie calls down a bird and I tie the letter to its foot.

I watch as the owl disappears into the grey cloud-filled sky. I hope she gets back to me soon. We walk down the steps from the owlery and I pull the sleeves of my cardigan down so they cover my hands. It's very cold. I think we can definitely expect snow this Christmas.

'Do you think she'll let you go?' Tessie asks as we near the front doors. I frown and shrug.

'Don't know. She'll either be over-come with joy that I'm safe and say yes; or…..' I trail off in horror. Oh the horrible possibilities!

'Or?'

'Or she could send me an angry howler telling me she's disgusted with me and has no intention of allowing me to do anything fun. Or she could hire an assassin and have me murdered, then bring me back to life so she could kill me again herself. Or she could transform into a dragon and-'

'Ok, I get it. She could do all sorts of bad things.' Tessie nods. 'Let's just….hope for the best,' Tessie suggests.

'Yeah,' I say unsurely.

'Guess who?' The deep, whisper comes moments after the big, warm, rough hands covering my eyes. A smile lights up my face.

'Hi Sirius,' I say, turning and taking the hands from my eyes in one movement. There he is, standing right in front of me, a brown bag under his arm and his cheeks red from the cold outside. He must have been wearing gloves, because his hands feel like they were held near a fire for the last while. 'How was Hogsmeade?'

He sits on the couch beside me. I close my book and tuck my legs under me, moving my body to face him and resting my left arm on the back of the couch. He takes my right hand from my lap and instead places it in his.

'Alright, you didn't really miss much. Peter fell off his chair in the Three Broomsticks, Remus dragged us into a bookshop and James made us stalk Evans for a while; the usual,' he says, shrugging.

I nod. 'The usual.' I sigh and eye the bag he's holding. 'Is that going to explode?' I ask, only half joking.

He chuckles and holds it out to me. 'For you,' he says.

I take my arm from the back of the couch and take it cautiously. I look from it to Sirius, who's rolling his eyes at my wariness before opening the top a tiny bit and squinting in. Discreetly, I sniff. I guess not so discreetly though, because Sirius barks out a laugh and starts fiddling with my fingers. Finally I open the bag fully, sensing no danger.

I gasp when I get a good look at the contents. The bag is nearly filled to the brim with dozens of different types of sweets. They must be from Honeydukes! I smile hugely and throw my arms around Sirius' neck. He laughs and hugs me back tightly.

'Thank you!' I say, pulling back. I peer into the bag again, leaning against Sirius' shoulder. I take out a Bertie Bott's bean and sniff it. I remember the time I had a fungus flavour one; Paul's idea of a joke. Ugh. But this one seems safe.

'Well?' Sirius questions after I pop it into my mouth.

'Pineapple and jelly,' I decide. I offer him the bag and he has a root around. His hand comes out with two pieces of green fudge.

'Their new Kiwi flavoured fudge,' he says, handing me a piece. 'It's really good,' he assures me, seeing my wrinkled nose. I shrug and put it into my mouth, chewing slowly. 'You like?'

'It's, err…..interesting,' I say brilliantly. He laughs.

'Oh, I almost forgot.' He put his hand into his coat and comes out a huge bar of chocolate, wrapped in Honeydukes best gold paper. He hands it to me.

'Sirius you didn't have to get me all this,' I tell him.

'Ah, it's nothing. Did you write to your mom?' he asks.

'Yup,' I nod. 'I'm sure she'll have got it by now.'

'Do you think she'll let you go?'

'Um…honestly?' He nods. 'No,' I say sadly.

He doesn't say anything, just watches me. I stare at the fire blazing brilliantly in front at us. The common room is quiet; most people are still in Hogsmeade.

'What's wrong?' he finally whispers.

'She thinks I betrayed her,' I whisper back.

'Your mum?' he asks, still in a whisper.

I nod. 'She never said it, but I know how she thinks. Family is the most important thing in the world to her. And that's what she's always taught me. It's how Paul and I grew up. But when I left, she was probably so disappointed. But she doesn't know why left. She doesn't understand. I had to,' I say desperately to him, clinging to his hand. I haven't talked to anyone but the girls about this before. This is weird. But it feels right.

'Sh. It's ok,' he says quietly and soothingly. He looks around at the people in here. A couple of girls nearby are glaring at me. They're just jealous, but they make me uncomfortable.

'Can we go upstairs?' I whisper in his ear.

'I have somewhere better,' he whispers back. He pulls me off the couch. 'Oh, bring those,' he points to the Honeydukes sweets.

I follow Sirius out the portrait hole, down a deserted corridor, up three flights of stairs and finally he stops in an empty hall. He paces back and forth three times.

'Um, Sirius-'

A door appears, interrupting my query about his sanity, quite literally out of nowhere. I hesitate, but Sirius walks right inside. I follow and stop inside, looking around shocked. It is like we have just walked into someone's home. Their kitchen, to be precise. The floor is made of white washed-out wood and the walls are painted pale blue. All the presses and cabinets are a light blue colour and the wood of them looks worn. The fridge and cooker are white also and in the middle of the bright room are a middle-sized wooden table and four chairs. The table must have once been brown, but someone had painted- well, tried to paint it- dark blue. The chairs are the same. In the corner of the big kitchen is a comfy looking white loveseat that has lots of blue cushions thrown carelessly on it.

'Wow,' I breathe. 'This is amazing.'

'This is the room of requirement,' Sirius tells me, also looking around awe-struck. 'Me and the lads always come up here. It's funny though; it's never taken on this kind of setting. I quite like it though. What do you think?' he asks pleasantly.

I can only nod. This kitchen is so perfect. And it feels like I know it well, like I've been here millions of times before. Sirius strolls to the loveseat after examining the presses and sits down. He pats the space next to him. I oblige and sit. He puts his arm around me and I am again struck by the familiarity of the situation. But I know I've never been here before.

'So, I guess I'll have to explain everything to you,' I sigh.

'No, Amy, you don't. I understand that it's a big thing for you,' Sirius says softly. I smile at him.

'I trust you Sirius. I know you won't tell anyone. Besides, you'd have to answer to Maddie, Jelly, Tessie and me if you did. And we're pretty handy with a wand,' I joke.

''Pretty handy'? You nearly blasted poor Philip Thomas apart in Defence against the Dark Arts,' Sirius laughs.

'I didn't 'blow him apart'. I was just letting him know that I didn't appreciate him touching Maddie's butt every time he was behind her,' I say, grinning.

'Sure,' Sirius laughs.

'Ok, so here we go. In September of third year, maybe three weeks into the term, Tessie got a letter from home, saying her dad was missing. They suspected Death Eaters were behind it- he was a top auror. But there was no sign of a struggle at the house. Tessie's mum was in a state. She had every auror she could get a hold of that was friends with Matt out looking for him.

'It was nearly Christmas when Tessie got the visit from the Minister of Magic. They'd found her dad in Hungary- we didn't know what he was doing there at the time either,' I assure Sirius, who's looking quite confused.

'Was he-'

'No, he wasn't dead. But Tessie wished he was. Matt had gone dark.' I pause, letting it sink in.

'He'd joined You-Know-Who?' Sirius whispers.

'Yeah. They found him right in their hang-out. He was apparently one of the inner-circle. Tessie was devastated,' I say sadly.

'Did he go to Azkaban?'

'They were having him shipped off within the hour. But first, he got one request.' I pause.

'What was that?' Sirius asks straight away, not wanting me to stop. He's really enjoying this story.

'Everyone gets one. It's like their last wish. Matt wanted to see his family. So they went to him. Tessie was port-keyed over to Hungary- you can't use anything like that to get to Azkaban- and she saw her dad.

'She didn't really understand. She didn't get how he could have gone bad. I suppose there was a part of her that was hoping they'd realise they had the wrong person; that he was innocent and they'd let him go and they could go home and she'd go back to school and everything would be normal again.

'I was with her when she went into the cell they were keeping him in. He'd asked for me too. He told us he didn't do it. He swore he was innocent. A death-eater had framed him. And Tessie believed him. So I believed him.' I stop for a moment, composing myself.

'All for one and one for all,' Sirius whispers. I smile at him and snuggle closer to him. I need to feel him, make sure he's here. Remind myself that this isn't happening again, that it's over. He rubs my shoulder tenderly.

'He told us about a man called Vladimir Tchaikovsky. He was a good friend of Matt's. He said he'd help us. So before leaving the prison he was being kept in, we promised him we'd help. He believed we could do it. And he made me swear I'd stand by Tessie, no matter what. He didn't need to; I wouldn't have left her.

We returned to school and made our plans. Matt had given us lots of pointers; information on how to break the enchantments on the school walls, things like that. Maddie and Jelly weren't supposed to come. We actually weren't even very close friends with them at the time. But they'd caught us in the act and we couldn't risk them blabbing so we-'

'You kidnapped them!' Sirius laughs.

'It wasn't really kidnapping,' I say. 'They wanted to come. They wanted adventure. It was our good luck I guess that we mixed well. Jelly was thoughtful and Maddie was practical. Tessie was careful and I- well, I had no problem doing dangerous things.' I smirk. 'We fast became best friends.

'It was hard to find Vladimir Tchaikovsky. He was a man that didn't want to be found. It took us six months to find him- in Russia. Six months to come up with a plan and do it- my favourite part, I must admit. And six months to find a safe place for Matt and relax for a while.' I smile. I can remember the fun we had. I can also remember the kick-ass hard parts too.

'So, you left school to bust out a criminal?' Sirius asks casually. I watch him carefully. I really hope I don't have to do a memory charm if he freaks out. I've done my fair share of them and I can never get the right amount forgotten. It's always either only the last four seconds they forget, or their whole life.

'Remembering the fact he wasn't a criminal; yes,' I nod. 'Yes I did.'

He looks at me for another minute and suddenly he bursts out laughing.

'You're not the average girlfriend, are you?' he manages to get out when he stops laughing.

'I'd reckon not,' I say, unsure. He snorts. 'Is that a bad thing?' I ask.

'No,' he smiles, shaking his head. 'It's a good thing.'

All the secrets have been revealed! - NOT! there's still plenty more to come.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed-ye make my day! Thanks to my special friends; TwinzLover, ScarletSunshine and ScandaliousIntentions. To the first two; sorry i didn't do what i said i was gonna do in this chapter- I just got carried down a different path. Hopefully the next one will include it! I hope ye still like this chapter!

Review Please! Ye know I love it when ye do!

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