"Hey! New girl! Special request for you at table five!"

Evelyn didn't need to look to know that it was Sirius at table five. After all, she had very childishly avoided him and made the other waitress go over there. She didn't want to be so childish but she couldn't help it. She had waited for him all yesterday, she even styled her hair into a sort of feminine mohawk thinking he'd appreciate it. And he didn't show. She tried to convince herself that maybe she misheard him and by tomorrow he meant the day after tomorrow. But she wasn't convinced. He had obviously spent the day with some other girl. Not that she should care if he was with another girl. It's not like they were a couple more like partners in crime and it wasn't like she cared about him. Or at least that's what Evelyn told herself.

But despite all her personal feelings, she knew she had to do her job. So she walked over with her head held high and tried to maintain whatever dignity she had left. She didn't have to be such a girl and get her feelings all hurt because of some stupid boy.

"Hey," He said with a smile when she walked over.

"What can I get for you?" Evelyn asked, carefully not looking directly at him.

"You always get me in trouble, so the real question is what kind of trouble?"

Evelyn didn't have the patience to deal with him being charming. It would take a lot more then a witty comeback to get back into her good books.

"Are you going to order something or not?"

"Coffee," Sirius said slowly and Evelyn turned away to get his cup, proud of herself for acting so indifferent.

"Hold on, Eve," He said reaching for her arm.

"My name is Evelyn!" She said shrilly and a lot louder then she meant to, drawing the eyes of the people at the nearby tables. "Sir." Evelyn added in lamely so as to not seem rude.

Evelyn filled the mug and brought the coffee over in a huff.

"Thank you, Evelyn."

Evelyn slammed the mug of coffee down so hard that half of it splashed out onto the table and on to the arms of Sirius and herself. Feeling guilty and silly, she grabbed a bunch of napkins and began to clean the mess. Sirius grabbed a napkin and wiped the hot coffee off his arm and then looked up at Evelyn. She was blushing.

"Evelyn," He said softly, testing the waters to see if she would half-attempt to burn him to death again. It seemed like a good sign that she didn't say anything and just continued to sop up the mess.

"I know a thing or two about girls and it seems you're angry with me for some reason. Your hair looks the same and it's already pretty short so that rules out not noticing a haircut..." Sirius stopped when he realized he was the only one grinning.

Evelyn was feeling too stupid to smile. So, he had been out with a girl. At least that was what Evelyn thought his knowing things about girls meant. Why should Evelyn care if he was? She was being stupid, stupid and over-dramatic and acting just like a girl. And since she was already there, she might as well continue.

"You," Evelyn took a deep breath and then looked at Sirius before she lowered her voice and continued: "You said I'd see you yesterday and then you never showed."

"Oh," Sirius said completely unperturbed, "That. I forgot I had to spend the day with my brother."

Sirius had been expecting something much worse. Home life made him think everything was doom and gloom.

"All day?" Evelyn asked skeptically.

"More or less," Sirius shrugged while adding sugar to what was left of his coffee.

"You don't have to lie to me," Evelyn said, her voice was soft but her words were sharp.

"What makes you think I'm lying?" Sirius asked. This disturbed him more then Evelyn's anger. He was a good liar. How could someone who had known him for so short a time catch him in a lie?

"I saw you working over there," Evelyn nodded out towards the window. "Alone. Without a brother."

"He was there. Just attempting to hide."

Evelyn made a disbelieving noise and was about to walk away again. Why should she even bother wasting her time if he wasn't going to respect her enough to tell the truth? Or even come up with a convincing lie?

"Fine," Sirius spat finally. "He was spying on me." He admitted

"Why?" Evelyn asked surprised enough that her anger seemed to disappear.

"Because..." Sirius cast around for an idea and one came easy. "Like you, I'm not really supposed to be out."

It wasn't a lie. Not really. If Sirius had just finished that sentence with "...in the muggle world," It would have been the complete truth.

"So, you're grounded?" Evelyn asked slightly amused. "You could have told me that." Evelyn still felt like she was still letting him off too easy. She always had a difficult time remaining angry at anyone.

"Like you could have told me yesterday. It would have taken two minutes." She said still a little angry.

"My brother was there to keep an eye on me. I couldn't have. Though I wanted to." He added in as an afterthought. Which wasn't a lie either. He did want to see her but Regulus got in the way.

"Fine." Evelyn said, accepting this though she didn't know if it was the truth or a lie. "Well I'm still grounded too so I guess this is it. Unless, will you be over there later?"

"Should be."

"Maybe I can sneak over for ten minutes or so?" Evelyn said unsure if he wanted her there and suddenly feeling unbearably vulnerable.

"My pleasure," Sirius said with a smile. And as Evelyn walked over to the next table he added:

"Just don't come armed with hot liquids," as he fished an ice cube out of his water glass and put it on the little red burn that had appeared from the angry coffee slam.

When Evelyn got off work she figured she only had maybe ten minutes or so before her mother appeared like the wicked witch in a fairy tale coming to lock Evelyn away in her tower. She walked across the street to find Sirius working hard on his bike.

"Hey," Evelyn said slightly unsure that he was listening. Evelyn knew how boys could get once they were working on something, nothing else existed.

"Hey," He said not looking up from what he was doing. "Could you pass me a rag?"

Evelyn cast her eyes around and rested them upon a stool with a dirty rag and a bag upon it. She grabbed the rag and threw it to Sirius but knocked the bag over in the process. A book fell out of it. Evelyn bent down to pick it up and as she was about to place the book in the bag, she stopped short staring at the cover.

She knew that dog. Maybe not knew personally but she had seen it. Evelyn read the title: "The Grim and Other Death Omens." Her throat suddenly felt dry. Death Omens? Evelyn was a superstitious person and she had never heard of this "grim." Moments after she had seen a giant black dog, like the one on the cover, she was nearly attacked. Was she supposed to die that night? Was she on borrowed time?

Sirius was wiping the oil off his hands with the rag when he saw Evelyn staring at a book. To his horror, he realized it was his book. He had performed a tricky little charm that made the pages of his motorcycle manual look like the pages of his divination textbook to anyone but him. He had taken a few extra precautions with Regulus snooping around. Evelyn made a move like she was going to open it before Sirius grabbed it out of her hands.

"Don't read that garbage," He said quickly. The last thing he needed was a muggle reading one of his magic books.

"Garbage?" Evelyn asked. "It's yours, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah. But I don't believe any of it."

"Then why do you carry it around?" Evelyn asked amused at the defensive attitude Sirius had.

"My...my family is interested in that sort of stuff," Sirius said, again not really lying. His family was into fortune telling and other magic.

"So you must know a thing or two. Tell me more about the grim." Evelyn pleaded with a slight sense of urgency which Sirius didn't pick up on.

Sirius stared at the cover and shrugged. "It's not real but supposedly you see the grim and and die not longer after."

"I've seen it," Evelyn said blanching at the thought.

"You have, have you?" Sirius said with a laugh.

"Yes!" Evelyn was now the defensive one. "One night at a park! And moments later, I almost got attacked!"

Sirius stopped laughing but was still smiling. She thought he was the grim.

"It all makes sense," Evelyn muttered and she began to pace back and forth. "I almost got attacked, then we almost get arrested, then I get grounded, I got kicked out of that store ruining my chances at getting my guitar, we almost fought that guy on the street..."

"Well when you put it that way, You're life really has been nothing but trouble since you met me."

"Not you! The grim!"

"Thank you" Sirius said.

Evelyn stopped pacing and stared at Sirius having no idea what he meant.

"What?"

"Well you made a point to differentiate meeting me and all the other bad stuff that's going on. Which leads me to believe you're happy you met me. So thank you, I'm glad I met you too" Sirius had the familiar arrogant smile on his face.

"I...that is not the point." Evelyn said flustered. "The point is I'm doomed."

On the word doomed, Evelyn looked right at Sirius and he saw genuine fear on her face. Sirius couldn't help but to think that she had no idea how doomed she might be with him.

"No," Sirius said firmly as if speaking it would assure that nothing would happen. "You're not doomed, Evelyn. Maybe you did see the grim but,"

Evelyn let out a distressed little noise at this and Sirius strode over and put his hands on her shoulders.

"But I don't think that dog is what you think it is. I don't think that he wants you to die or wish any harm on you at all," He hastily added. "It's not real, you're not doomed, you're not going to die," His voice was quiet but he said all of this firmly, almost defiantly as if he was daring something to try.

"Besides, I'm pretty sure you could take on that dog and defeat him, easy."

Evelyn laughed and finally felt not so anxious. It was silly to be so superstitious. She wasn't dead yet and Sirius was right, she wouldn't go down without a fight. At Evelyn's laugh, Sirius gave her shoulders an encouraging little squeeze. She looked at his hands as if she just noticed them. Sirius looked at her and teasingly said:

"This is the part where you push me away and tell me you can take care of yourself."

Evelyn laughed again and surprised Sirius by wrapping her arms around him and giving him a hug.

"Thanks," Evelyn whispered as they pulled slightly apart. Their arms were still loosely around one another and both were sure they were about to kiss but then Sirius quickly let go.

"Speaking of death omens, I think that's your mother."

Evelyn quickly turned around and saw her mother parking in front of the cafe. She didn't look like she was in the mood for murder, which lead Evelyn to believe that she hadn't seen her and Sirius.

"Later," Evelyn said quickly as she snuck back across the street unseen by her mother.

Sirius watched her get into the car and drive away and just for a moment thought that maybe Evelyn was right and they were both doomed.