Hey! So this was the best I could muster under time pressure… You see; I'm leaving for Budapest on Saturday, and won't be back for another week, which means: Bye, Bye Internet!

I'll be planning what to do next though ;) I actually have a Rose/Scorpius-story in mind? What do you say? Interested? A multi-chap of course… let me know if you like the idea.

Anyway; Enjoy!

Read and Review!

"Expecto patronum," I said and out of the tip of my wand it came; the smallest silvery hummingbird ever seen; or at least it seemed so. It was smaller than my fist but soared through the air like nothing I'd ever seen before. It flew past the ears of Alice and Frank who were in deep conversation, and it flew so close by Charlotte that her hair was ruffled by its small fast beating wings. I couldn't help the laughing, which escaped my lips as she shot me an angry glare. I kept my eyes on the little bird -that I had conjured- as it took a spin round the whole room.

"Nice one," someone whispered close to my ear, and I felt their hot breath tickle my skin. The hummingbird vanished as I lost my concentration.

"Sirius, your dog is losing it," Remus' familiar voice called from the other end of room, though it sounded a bit upset.

Turning around I just had time to watch as Sirius (who by the way was standing rather closeto me) spun around to look at his patronus; it had the shape of a huge dog and something about it seemed to resemble him slightly, though I couldn't decide what it was. Remus had been right; his dog was jumping around in a playful manner, its tail wagging vigorously, but at the same time its silvery color had begun to flicker, and it distantly reminded me of a light bulb that needed changing; It became almost invisible before brightening up into a color so clear that you were in need of sunglasses just to look at it (Okay, a bit over the top perhaps, but you get the point, right?).

Standing upon my tip-toes only, I whispered teasingly in his ear;

"Losing concentration, are we, Mr. Black?"

I saw him give a slight shudder and the dog fainted away. I giggled as I turned around, conjuring a new patronus. He had asked for it himself after all.

For the rest of the D.A.D.A. class (Defense Against the Dark Arts if you didn't knew it) patronuses flew all round us, soaring or leaping through the air, running and galloping along the tables as James' stag did, Lily's doe following.

While getting ready to leave the class Sirius caught up to me.

"Are you flirting with me, MissThorne,"

"Oh, I wouldn't dare, Snuffles."

"Snuffles?" he asked curiously something about his posture suddenly changing as he became more… tense.

"Yeah, because of your patronus. What else?" I smiled with a light frown.

He opened his mouth, but suddenly Remus came up to us.

"Can I speak with you? Privately," he added while eyeing Sirius. Before I even had any possibility at answering, he grabbed me by the arm and dragged me down a deserted corridor.

"Hey!" I exclaimed.

"Hi," he replied with a mumble either ignoring my exclamation, making fun of it instead, or perhaps, he didn't even realize that it hadn't been a greeting. He seemed to be deep in thought, looking over his shoulder every now and then.

"Are we being followed?" I whispered dramatically trying to lighten up the mood.

"No, I don't think so," he still looked very serious, but –for a fraction of a second- I think I saw the flicker of a smile upon his face.

"What do you want?" it was a just question in my opinion; he had after all dragged me all the way, right? He waited with answering until he found us a vacant class room, closing the door after us as we entered. "So?" I prompted him.

"Do you fancy him?" the boldness of this statement almost knocked me off my feet; Remus had never been the one to be bold or blunt or anything else in that manner. He was the 'down to earth' and quiet guy, so of course I was surprised about his sudden change in attitude.

"Who?" it was asked in the same way another may have asked 'do you really wanna go there?'; a sort of precaution, perhaps. I knew who he meant though; not a very tough nut to crack.

"Sirius."

Wow, big surprise (and here I thought all the sarcasm had finally left my system… apparently not).

The absurdness of the situation almost seemed comical to me; only minutes earlier had I been laughing my head off in class, and now Remus was confronting me with… this.

"No, I don't," I told him at last, "We're just friends."

Remus seemed to have problems with dealing the information, eyes looking conflicted, but it was the truth after all; we were just friends – friends who had almost went out on a date with each other and kissed once, though very briefly – but still. After a few minutes of further silence between us, he seemed to think better of it.

"Okay," he just shrugged, before leaving the room, eyes downcast.

It broke my heart a little actually. For sixteen years had we been the best of best friends and now he suddenly started to feel… distant.

Suddenly Sirius' head peeped in.

"Still alive?" he joked.

"Yeah," I said trying not to ruining his light-hearted mood by sulking too much.

"Come on," he said and I slowly went over to him.

We started to walk as he began to whistle; an idea took form in my head.

"Can you teach me that?"

"What?" he asked taken aback.

"To whistle. I don't know how to do it."

"Well, of course M'lady," he said inclining his head like a gentleman, though with the sly grin used only by thieves. (Gentlemen? Thieves? What's going on in my brain lately!).

…

"Hales, you've got to blow!" Sirius exclaimed exasperated.

"I'm trying!" I frowned in concentration, blowing harder but still no sound came.

"You're trying to whistle, not to spit on me!"

"Shut up," I pouted annoyed, "I'm giving up! I'm clearly not supposed to be able to whistle."

"Give it at least a last try," Sirius persisted, a sudden glint appearing in his eye.

"Okay," I quickly gave in, curios to see what his plan was. It hadn't work all the other times so why should it now? I pursed my lips to give it another go...

"Wait!" I stopped immediately as he said it.

"What?"

"Try to inhale?"

"Inhale?" was that his genius idea?

"Yeah, didn't I just say so," he responded teasingly before adding, "Just try it."

I shook my head, not really believing in any of it, but still pursed my lips – once again – and this time began inhaling. Nothing. I tried again, more out of plain annoyance than Sirius' encouraging glances at me. Again nothi- wait! I tried again, and realized I had been hearing right, as another tiny little whistle came from my lips.

"I did it!" I cheered happily.

"You did it," Sirius joined in with a pleased smile on his lips, "Now we only need to teach you how to-"

"Hey Lily! I can whistle now," I yelled as I spotted her coming through the portrait hole.

She just stared in disbelief at us.

"What?" Sirius asked at last when her stare was starting to get a bit unnerving.

"You've been sitting here all day while trying to whistle?" her eyebrows shot to her hairline, though to be honest; I couldn't see her problem.

"Only half of it," I smiled teasingly at her, "And what's the matter with it? Why so upset?"

"It's nothing. I just didn't know how well you two were... friends."

"So?"

"Nothing," well, that clearly meant there was something.

"Lily?" Sirius asked, also picking up on the slightly high-pinched tone in her voice.

"Spit it," I added.

She shuffled her weight from one foot to the other, twisting her hands around nervously. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought she had to pee.

"Okay!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in surrender as she couldn't hold it in any longer, "I just thought you two were into each other!"

This was definitely one of those scenes were the protagonist would have spitted their water out, making it spray so much that everything eventually would end up wet. Only I didn't have any glass of water by hand.

I must have looked hilarious; mouth popped open, eyes bulging as I tried to comprehend it. Sirius looked pretty dumfounded himself, still he recovered fastest.

"You- what?"

"I... I just thought that since you hadn't... you know... been with anyone this year, that maybe it was because of Hayley. So when you asked her out I automatically thou-" Lilly began to blurt but Sirius interrupted.

"You know about that?" he seemed to pale a bit; only a little bit of course. The difference would probably have been too minor to notice for anyone else than his best friends and... well, me.

"Yeah, Hayley told me, and I told her about my assumption, that you liked her-"

"You did?" this time he turned on me afterwards, "She did?"

"She did," I nodded, before gently pushing his face back to her, when he wouldn't turn by himself.

"I... I..." Lily blushed as she realized what she had been saying.

"It's okay, Lils," I reassured her before continuing, "We've talked it through and decided on being friends. It's okay. Really."

"But I thought you liked him!" She paled as soon as she had said it, just like I did (She really need to learn when to shut up!).

"You- what?" Sirius turned to me his face looking as if in an internal struggle between a frown and a grin.

"Pfsst! That's just... her imagination!"

I don't even know why I tried to cover it up. It wasn't so that I had ever really been crazy about him or anything. Well, not that I've realized anyway, but apparently Lily had already taken care of that for me.

"You liked me?" It seemed that the grin had won the battle.

"Well, did you like me?"

Ha! He didn't see that one coming.

"Call it even?" I suggested.

"Even it is."

...

"So where are you spending Christmas, Hayley?" Alice asked me during dinner that evening.

"Christmas?" I questioned while munching on my chicken wing. Wasn't there like... forever to go before that?

"Yeah, it's the 1st December," she smiled.

Wow, time passed quickly here at Hogwarts. I had already been here for half a year. Well, almost.

"Ehm, at home I guess," everybody just kept looking at me. Okay, when you've been moving over and over again for the last decade of your life it probably isn't so weird. "My grandmother's house," I explained and they all nodded in understanding, "What about you?"

They took turns telling it; Alice was going to France once again for the holidays with her mom and dad. Frank was staying in London and so was Lily. Charlotte was flying to Hawaii (I couldn't have cared less). James was going to spend his days in Scotland with some forgotten relatives. Remus was celebrating it at home with me like always (Though he didn't say much to me during dinner at all) and Sirius...

"I'm not celebrating it."

"What?" I asked confused. Why not celebrate Christmas; lots of good food, traditions and presents.

"I don't have anywhere to stay, so I guess I'll be spending it while unpacking my stuff."

"Unpacking?"

"I just bought an apartment before school began."

"Why?" What would a teenage boy need an own apartment for?

"Because I don't have anywhere else to stay," he stated matter-of-factly, though I could feel he didn't want to waste any more time on the subject.

I nodded to show that I had understood, and was done with the questioning. I added a mental note to myself though; Find out why Sirius is spending Christmas alone!

A/N: Hi again! So that's it! What did you think? As always leave a review ;D See ya!

-Marie