Charlotte found Fred and George in their room packing belongings away into identical bags. Fred's however, was mostly packed where George seemed to be packing and then unpacking continually.

"Hello," Charlotte said cautiously, giving George a grin as he looked up. He grinned back sheepishly but then quickly looked down at his bag again.

Fred rolled his eyes. "Please Charlie, give us a break and just tell him you won't hitch it with Sirius while we are gone. George has gone paranoid and I can tell you the look does not suit him as it might me."

Charlotte went bright red, she could feel the heat crawling up her neck. "Oh, I uh."

George frowned and pushed his twin onto the bed and pretended to beat him up. "I'm not paranoid! And if I were it would certainly suit me better than you."

"Well I," Charlotte began.

Fred hopped up on the bed. "I would pick Sirius over you George, he's way sexy."

"Way sexy?" Charlotte giggled.

Fred winked at her but then bounded out of the room, perhaps to give them space, or perhaps just to cause mayhem somewhere else. Either way the room lost it's joking tone and George silently unpacked his bag again. Charlotte sat on his bed in the way so that he had to focus on her instead of the clothes.

"Why don't you just use magic to pack?" she asked.

George shrugged.

She looked at him inquiringly. "I'm not going to you know."

George looked up finally. "What?"

"I'm not going to get with Sirius."

George laughed awkwardly and wandered around the room as if looking for something but he couldn't seem to find it. Charlotte stood up. "George! I'm not in love with him okay, we're just friends. He was my boyfriend, but now we're just friends because we're in different places in our lives! I mean look at us! He's all distinguished and I've missed that the world is falling to pieces, I'm a mess."

George shook his head. "You aren't a mess, you'll figure stuff out."

"Yeah," she replied. "With you, when you are back."

George let a grin slide onto his face but tried to hide it by scratching the side of his mouth. "Yeah, cool, whatever, you know, sweet."

Charlotte raised an eyebrow. "So you're cool."

"Yeah."

Charlotte smiled, though he was acting odd he looked much happier now, and his bag seemed to finally be being packed. She nodded and feeling slightly better herself kissed him on the cheek. "Well I'll see you later cool guy."

She left the room quickly but as she turned into the hallway she could have sworn she saw him punch his fist into the air.

Upstairs she sat on Sirius' bed feeling that things might just work out after all. I mean she could be sad about the loss of things, or she could look at what was getting better. Sirius might even come around and they could be best friends again. Maybe Remus would tutor her in charms like the old days and she could consider going back to school. Now that would be weird. What if kids were smarter these days.

She pulled out the photo of the four marauders and smiled, they looked so happy and carefree. Looking around a bit she couldn't find any photos of her and Sirius together and felt a bit disappointed.

"Distinguished huh?" a voice came from behind her.

She looked around to find Sirius leaning on the door frame. "That's old but in a good way right?"

Charlotte laughed. "Yeah."

He sat down next to her and looked at the photo too with a small smile. "Who would have thought then, that we'd be here now. In this war, with you."

"So the Order is against you know who?"

Sirius nodded. "Yeah, but before you ask you can't join."

Charlotte almost choked. "What, Sirius, seriously? I mean, you always said we'd fight the dark arts together. It was always your fantasy."

He shrugged, he didn't feel so protective of her then. At that time, they were equal, he was out for himself and she was out for herself but they were somehow linked. Now, he just wanted to hex anyone who came near her.

"I guess, I mean I said Harry could…" he trailed off.

"It's settled then," she replied. "I'll join, we can be the partners you always wanted to be!"

Sirius' dark eyes seemed glazed but she didn't push it any further, things were going so well the way they were she didn't want to bring up too much future or too much past that might set him off.

But Sirius was already thinking about the future, her future. He didn't want her to leave the house, go to school like Harry. He already missed him enough he couldn't lose her too. But how to arrange that without Remus murdering him.

"Charlie, you should become fully involved, you are right. It'd be good for you I reckon. Into the future forget the past."

She smiled broadly, god how he loved that smile, especially when he had caused it. "Brilliant."

They sat in silence for a long time, both staring at the doorway as if wondering whether to leave or not, but then Charlotte piped up. "Where are all the photos of us?"

Sirius shook his head slowly, he had sworn never to look at those again, at anything that reminded him of her the day after Lily and James wedding. Sure, that day had been great, and he was so so happy for them. Especially James who was so in love with Lily it hurt his mind and teeth, but they day had hurt. It just reminded him of Charlie like a stab in the heart. "I hid them," he said.

"Where?"

He got off the bed and moved the rug, pushing his wand under a floorboard, it came up with a loud screech, but Charlotte didn't seem to mind. Her eyes lit up, he put his hand in and dug out a shoebox.

She smiled, "oh how cliché Sirius!"

He grinned. "You know me, I'm a charmer." They both laughed and it seemed almost like old times. He let her open the box.

Charlotte breathed in so quick she felt dizzy, there wasn't just photos in this box. The first thing she saw was her beautiful silver bracelet he had given her when they first got together. It was dainty and had a dog charm on it, she'd taken it off for detention that day. Then next to it was other things of hers, her hair clip, her coin purse and even her perfume. Sirius looked almost embarrassed as she put some on.

"I, well I dunno, I didn't think you'd mind if I kept…" He trailed off as he saw the tear on her cheek.

Under those she found a picture of the two of them in full Gryffindor get up. "James finest match that was," she said. Her photographic self had her arms around Sirius' waist and he was trying to swing her around but she didn't want to and kept getting grumpy but then laughing.

He'd even kept notes she'd passed him in class.

Charlotte just gaped at them, searching through photo after photo of her smily face with multiple people.

"I didn't know you were so sensitive."

Sirius sighed. "You know I wasn't," he said. "But I had never felt anything like that before, it made me f-ing crazy."

Charlotte looked up at the ceiling to try and hold in any waterworks. She knew how she felt, Sirius was Sirius and now he was distinguished. And George was fun, and he truly seemed to care. But now, now Sirius throws this at her?

"God you really loved me didn't you?"

Sirius didn't answer but he pulled out two pictures and they seemed well enough to answer that question. One was of the marauders and her, near her 17th birthday. Sirius looked so, so happy. The other was the last day of Hogwarts.