"Sirius, wake up!" Rachel said into her boyfriend's ear one morning during the summer. He remained still. Walking towards the bathroom, Rachel said to herself, "Fine, he leaves me no choice,"

She filled up a small bucket of icy cold water, brought it to the door of the guest room in which Sirius was staying at Rachel's house, and pulled out her wand to levitate the bucket. Rachel did and charmed the water over to the bed and gracefully dumped the bucket of water onto his head. Quickly, she ran away from the room as a scream filled the house. "RACHEL!"

Laughing, Rachel walked back into his room, not caring that she was only in a black silk lingerie gown, and told him, "Well, you wouldn't wake up, you gave me no choice,"

Suddenly, she became aware of the fact that she was almost naked. Blushing, she started backing up from the 'You look hot' look that Sirius was giving her and said hastily, "Well, I'm going, um, well—" and left the room, intent on putting on some pants. A couple of minutes later, after she had matching silk pants that had fuzzy leg bottoms, she went into the guest room where Sirius was attempting to dry his hair with his wand; it was not going well. Not only that, but Rachel couldn't help but notice that he was only in boxers.

"Want me to do it?" she asked, feeling a little pity for him as he unsuccessfully attempted to dry it off again. Sirius loved his hair almost as much as he loved Rachel.

"Yes, please," he answered, giving her a puppy dog look, and she came over and performed a Drying Charm. Now with a huge smile plastered over his face, he said, "Good morning, my love," and kissed her on the lips.

"Well, I like that greeting more than the one a few minutes ago," she laughed.

"Well, you know how I am about my hair,"

"Anyway," she informed him. "My parents took Danielle and Angela to the fair. They won't be back until tonight so I guess it's just you and me for the day,"

She smiled at him, but then it faltered when she thought of the last time her parents had left her at home . . . Tommy, her brother, had died trying to protect her from Voldemort.

Apparently, Sirius could tell that she was thinking about that event and pulled her into a hug and whispered, "Don't worry, he won't come today,"

"How do you know that?" she asked.

"Dumbledore increased the protective charms on the house tenfold. There's no way Voldemort can enter this house," he explained.

"You're right, I know you're right. I just can't help but think about it,"

"I know, but don't worry. You won't ever lose me . . . I promise," he told her.

He hugged her even tighter, than released her and said, "I'd better get dressed and you're not allowed to see the package yet," grinning at her.

"The package," Rachel chuckled as she left the room and went downstairs to start breakfast.

After she had gotten the griddle out to start making pancakes, she noticed two tawny owls sitting at one of the kitchen windows. Wondering what was going on, Rachel tossed open one of the windows and allowed the owls to drop their letters on the counter and fly away. She was fearing more letters from random people she didn't know.

Not even a week after the Hogwarts incident, the news of Rachel's second escape from Voldemort had made it into the Daily Prophet. She had been receiving letters from people all over the country. Many were even formulating something. . . .

Many people were starting to believe that Rachel Delancy was the one that could be destined to defeat Voldemort. No one had confirmed these ideas, but select few people knew that those theories were correct.

Once she had closed the window after them, she turned to the letters: one was addressed to her, the other to Sirius. Slowly, almost nervous about tearing open the letter, she opened the envelope and a sheet of paper fell out of it. At the top said "Rachel Delancy's O.W.L. results" and excitement flooded through her.

Arithmancy E

Charms O

Defense Against the Dark Arts O

Divination A

Herbology E

History of Magic E

Potions O

Transfiguration O

Rachel was ecstatic, almost to the point of jumping up and down. She had received eight O.W.L.s and was able to take all of her classes except for Divination, which she didn't really care about.

"Sirius! Sirius, get down here right now!" she squealed.

Sirius came running down the stairs, buttoning a white shirt, looking terrified.

"What? Rach, is everything okay?" he asked her worriedly.

"Yeah, of course it is! We got our O.W.L. results," she informed him, pointing at the remaining envelope.

"Thank goodness everything's okay! By the way you were shrieking, I thought a Death Eater had made it past the shields," he informed her as he grabbed his letter and tore it open.

"Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry I scared you, but I got all O.W.L.s,"

"Congratulations! Now, what are the grades again?"

"O is outstanding; E is exceeds expectations; A is acceptable; P is poor; D is dreadful; and T is troll," Rachel recited simply.

"Wouldn't it suck if I got a Troll?"

"I would laugh,"

"Yeah," he agreed, unfolding his letter, "I know you would."

Rachel watched him as his beautiful grey eyes scanned his results. He smiled. She always liked his smile, it was very charming.

"I take it your grades are good?"

"I got an O.W.L. in everything but Divination. I got a P in it,"

"Oh well, you still did really good," Rachel assured him.

Rachel continued to talk to him as she made her famous pancakes. After five minutes, she put a couple on each plate and placed them on the table. Sirius sat in Tommy's former seat next to Rachel. Surprisingly, they ate in silence, thinking about how lucky they both were to even be eating pancakes. Just a couple of months ago, Sirius had been kidnapped by Voldemort and his Death Eaters to lure Rachel to her death. They had somehow made it out of there alive, finally reunited after a nasty breakup, and happier than ever.

Once they had finished, Rachel said in a happy voice, "Know what we're going to do today?"

"What are we going to do today?" Sirius asked, interested.

"I'm going to show you what Muggles do for fun instead of staying here the entire day," Rachel revealed.

"Sounds like fun," he responded in a dull voice.

"Oh, come on, you'll have a lot of fun!"

Sirius looked a little reluctant, but agreed.

"What are we going to do?" he asked.

"Well, the mall is going to open soon and I wanted to go shopping today,"

"What's the mall?" Sirius questioned.

Rachel was dumbfounded for a moment, but snapped out of it by remembering that Sirius had never experienced any Muggle activities. Still, it was very strange to her to have someone ask what the mall is.

"The mall is a building with many stores in it and you can shop for leisure books, shoes, clothes, hair stuff, stuff for your home, and a lot of other things," she explained.

"Cool. Sounds like fun."

"Now, you're not getting anything today but I need some more clothes," she told him.

"Why? If you buy anymore your closet will overflow," he said.

"Some of that stuff is too small now and plus, I also wanted to get a new dress for this year,"

"Okay. Then what are we going to do?"

"After the mall, we have to go to the studio," she said with an apology on her face.

"Why? I thought today was going to be just you and me," he said.

"I'm sorry, Padfoot, but I promised Drew that we'd come in so I can work on some new routines. You can let us know if they're good or not since you've been to a couple of my competitions,"

"Fine, but how long do we have to stay?" Sirius whined, putting his arms around Rachel's waist.

"Only a couple of hours, sweetie, I promise," she told him and pecked him on the lips. "I should get dressed though,"

"Okay," he said, releasing her.

Another ten minutes later, Rachel was completely ready to go and they drove to the mall in Rachel's brand new 2009 dark blue Ford Mustang. Since it was only a Tuesday, many people were still working meaning the mall wasn't very full.

"Okay," she told him as they started walking towards the entrance. "I want to go to Hollister for some shirts, pants, and maybe a tank-top. Then, we're going to Macy's for a dress and then we're going to Payless to find some matching shoes if I need them. Now, you don't talk or work with the money, that's what I do. The only time you talk is if I ask your opinion of something."

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, feeling slightly overwhelmed. "I can do that,"

They went to Hollister where Rachel bought a brown fur-lined sweatshirt, a long-sleeve white shirt, and a pair of light blue jeans. Then they went to Macy's and Rachel bought a spaghetti-strapped black dress with ruffles at the bottom where it hit just above her knee. On their way out to the car after three hours of shopping, Rachel ran into a couple of familiar faces.

"Rachel?" a familiar voice asked from nearby.

Rachel turned her head and saw two of her old friends, Lucy Peters and Emily Satchur.

"Hi!" Rachel squealed, gave her bags to Sirius, and ran towards them and they all made one big hug.

"Wow! You look great!" they told her.

"Thanks, so do you! How long has it been since we've seen each other?"

"I think it was a couple of weeks before you and Lily disappeared to some other school," Emily said, tossing her gorgeous blonde hair out of her face.

"Who's that incredible looking guy back there?" Lucy asked quietly, pointing towards Sirius.

"Oh," she said, realizing she hadn't done introductions yet and beckoned Sirius over and he obeyed. "Um, Lucy, Emily, this is my boyfriend, Sirius."

"Hi," the girls said, shaking hands with him.

"Um, sweetie, why don't you wait in the car while I catch up with some old school friends for a couple minutes," she suggested, offering him the keys.

"Okay," he said, giving her a quick kiss on the lips and went for the car.

"Wow," Emily breathed, still watching Sirius as he got into the car.

"Yeah," Lucy agreed, doing the same.

"Guys, you're kind of drooling over my boyfriend," Rachel said, trying not to laugh. She was used to this sort of thing. It was very common at Hogwarts where Sirius and James were the best looking guys in school.

"So," Lucy said, pulling her attention back to Rachel. "How long have you two been going out?"

"Almost two years,"

"You guys must be pretty serious,"

"Yeah, I think so." Rachel looked at her watch. "Well guys, it was great seeing you again but I have to get to the studio to work on a new routine,"

"See you soon!" Lucy and Emily called as Rachel got into the driver's seat.

"Where do you know those two from?" Sirius asked Rachel as they drove out of the parking lot.

"Lily and I were good friends with them when we were younger,"

In a matter of minutes, they pulled into a parking spot at Drew's studio. She put her bags into the trunk and she and Sirius walked into the studio and into the bigger practice room. They found Drew sitting on the chair by the stereo, looking through songs.

"Hey, Drew," they greeted. Rachel put her purse down on one of the chairs and hugged her professional ballroom dance partner.

"Hi, Rach. Listen, I've narrowed our Samba songs down to Copacabana or Don't Cha. Which one?"

"Um, lets use Copacabana. It's got a good beat and the routine fits well with the song," Rachel said.

"Okay, want do practice it with the song a couple of times?" Drew asked, putting the CD into the stereo.

"Sure. Honey, let us know what you think," Rachel answered, walking over to where they started.

The music started and Rachel and Drew did their new routine. It was very upbeat and made Sirius want to start dancing. After they finished, Rachel and Drew both looked a little tired but very pleased with themselves.

"So, what do you think?" Rachel said, taking a drink of water.

"It was really good. Upbeat, fun, and it made me want to start dancing," Sirius reported.

"Awesome! That's the kind of reaction we want!" Rachel squealed.

After another hour of choosing songs, critiquing the routines, and practicing, Rachel announced that they had to leave.

"We have reservations at this fabulous Italian place called Nucci's. They have amazing lasagna and gelato," Rachel told Sirius when he asked about dinner.

"Sounds good," he replied.

They pulled into the parking lot, got a table, and ordered two lasagnas and two waters. The restaurant was warm, cozy, and small, seating only about seventy-five people.

"So, have you had fun or has it been dull like you thought it would be this morning?" Rachel asked while waiting for the food.

"I've got to say that I've had a lot of fun today," Sirius answered, smiling at her.

Their food came after that and it was excellent. Feeling full, they went back to the house and watched television until they got tired and went to bed.

The next week was leisurely until the day they left for Hogwarts. Rachel was extremely excited because she and James were co-captains of the Quidditch team. She and Sirius boarded the train and made their way back to the last compartment where James and Peter were sitting and talking. Everyone greeted each other and started catching up. Remus joined them a little later on their journey after visiting the Prefect's cabin.

"I found out that tomorrow, the day that classes start, we'll be getting career advice," Remus informed them.

"Fun," James said sarcastically.

They talked about careers the rest of the trip and continued to talk about it as they piled into the Great Hall.

They went through the usual routine and found out when their appointments with their Heads of Houses were. Rachel's was at 1:15pm tomorrow. Once they had their usual nightly chat in the boy's dormitory, Rachel slept very peacefully.

Rachel and Lily woke up the next morning at 7:30am, showered, got dressed, and did their hair, makeup, and teeth and went down to breakfast together. Lily and Rachel sat down in their usual spots by the Marauders. They talked about how hard their N.E.W.T.s were going to be since their O.W.L.s were taxing enough and their new schedules. They had two free periods which made them happy until Remus brought up something that made their feelings deflate.

"You realize that since we have more homework this year than last year that we're going to have to use those free periods for homework and studying,"

That statement was true. By the time their first break came before lunch, the five of them were feeling overwhelmed and already starting on their essays.

"This completely sucks," James said during their first paper.

"Tell me about it," Sirius agreed.

"Does anyone know five signs of a werewolf?" Peter asked.

"How thick are you, Wormtail? You run around with a werewolf every month," James exclaimed.

"Keep it down" Remus begged.

"What?" Rachel asked. "It's not like anyone else knows about your furry little problem,"

"Furry little problem?" Sirius laughed.

"Well, what else are going to call it? His wolfishness?"

"Please, just keep it down," Remus repeated, not looking up from his Potions essay.

"You're right, you're right, Rach. It's his furry little problem," Sirius said, laughing at Remus.

They went to lunch and then they started talking about careers again since Sirius and Rachel were the first ones to have career advice.

"I don't know. I want to be a Healer—"

"You'd make a good Healer," James interrupted.

"Thanks. Anyway, it sounds nice, but I've wanted to be a Meteorologist since I was a little girl,"

She looked up at them to see their reactions at her wanting a Muggle profession and found confused faces. She tried to stifle her laughter as she realized that they didn't know what a Meteorologist was.

"A Meteorologist is someone who observes and predicts the weather, but sometimes some of them go out into the field to observe dangerous storms like tornados or hurricanes,"

"Wow, that sounds like fun," Remus said genuinely.

"Yeah, but if you predict a blizzard or really hot or cold weather, then people don't like you very much,"

"Oh well, that's not your fault," Sirius said while eating his sandwich.

"That's true. It's not our fault that statistics and generated models and radars are showing a certain weather pattern. Although, I would love to get out into the field a few times since my dad and I used to do it when I was younger,"

"It sounds kind of dangerous," James inserted.

"Of course it is; you're going up against the strongest thing that Mother Nature throws at you. That's why they train you. Enough of this subject though, what do you guys officially want to do?"

"I want to be an Auror," James answered.

"Me too," Sirius agreed.

"I want to be a teacher," Remus said.

"I want to work with animals," Peter said.

They discussed it for a couple of minutes before Sirius had to go to his appointment with McGonagall.

"Well, we'd better go to the common room and start on the Transfiguration paper," James suggested and they trudged up to the Gryffindor tower.

Sirius came up fifteen minutes later and reported that McGonagall said that he has the grades and the skill to become an Auror and to send Rachel down.

"Come in, Miss Delancy," McGonagall greeted as Rachel knocked on the door of her office. "Have a seat," she said, indicating one of the maroon chairs in front of her desk.

"Now, have you thought about what you want to do after Hogwarts?" she asked, getting out a couple of papers and leaflets.

"Well, I've got two ideas but one of them is a Muggle career," Rachel answered sheepishly. She wasn't sure what most wizards and witches thought of one of their own wanting a Muggle job.

"If you choose to pursue that career, then you need to go to a Muggle college, but I might be able to pull some strings and have you shadow someone for a day or two. What is this profession that you are interested in?" McGonagall asked, pulling out a piece of parchment and a quill.

"Meteorology. More specifically working with predicting, reading radars, and possibly storm chasing," Rachel informed her while McGonagall recorded it all down.

"I will talk to Dumbledore about this later. What was the other profession you might want to pursue?"

"I thought it would be cool to be a Healer,"

"Well," McGonagall said, handing Rachel a pamphlet. "You need to get exceeds expectations N.E.W.T.s in Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, History of Magic, Potions, and Transfiguration. On your grade report, it seems that you have Outstanding in all of your classes right now, so if you keep up the good work you'll have no problem becoming a Trainee Healer. I will also talk to Dumbledore about the shadowing to help you make a decision. You may go,"

Rachel got up feeling very pleased and made her way back to the common room.

"Guess what, you guys? McGonagall said she would talk to Dumbledore and see if I could shadow a Meteorologist sometime and she also said that if I keep my grades the way they are that I could easily be a Healer," Rachel announced excitedly as she plopped down into one of the plushy armchairs.

"I'm proud of you," Sirius said and kissed her on the forehead.

After another ten minutes of working, they had all of their current homework done and loved that they only had one class left: Charms.

"You know what we should do tonight?" Rachel asked them while they made their way to the Charms classroom.

"What?" James asked.

"We should play Truth or Dare! Or figure out pranks for the Slytherins, mostly Snivellus, but still," she said, shrugging.

"Both sound good to me," James replied getting an evil grin on his face when he imagined the many possible pranks.

"That sounds like fun," Remus voiced.

"Wow, this is an interesting development. Moony actually wants to do something fun instead of study," Sirius joked.

"Ha ha," Remus replied.

Unfortunately, they didn't have more time to discuss it when the bell rang and the class started dealing with non-verbal spells.