glazedwater: Yes, he is pretty insightful:) lol enjoy this next chapter!

Luise_Mau: I know, I'm excited too! Hope you enjoy this next chapter:)

iceandfire105: Thanks! Yeah it was down for at least 9 hours, from what I heard. I wasn't at my computer enough to know for sure, but when I was finally ready to upload the next chapter, I was unpleasantly surprised. Hope this chapter comes out in good time though! Lol

Monday

December 3rd

5:24 pm

Library

Emmeline was getting used to skipping meals. Not that she was trying to starve herself or anything – she ate periodically between classes and in the common room when doing homework and stuff. It had just become a habit with her, and the fact that she didn't have to see Reggie anymore at mealtimes was an added bonus. While the pain of their breakup had faded significantly within the last three and a half weeks, she still found she was much happier when the prospect of seeing him again wasn't nagging at the back of her brain.

During meals, therefore, she would usually retire to the library, finding a strange sort of solace in all the books around her. Marlene never joined, for which Emmeline was grateful – she liked to be alone from time to time. Plus, the solitude allowed her to get through the mountain of homework that was constantly weighing her down.

She wandered her way through the shelves, searching for a book on magical sea creatures for her Defense Against the Dark Arts essay. She thought she was alone in the library, but turning a corner, she noticed the Marauders all sitting together at a table some ways away, their heads together while working on a project. Remus glanced up when she passed by and grinned; she waved back at him with a smile before moving along.

The next shelf over was wizarding genealogy. While Emmeline knew she was supposed to be looking in the magical creatures section for a book, she couldn't help but take a little detour this way. She began to walk slowly down the genealogy aisle, inspecting the familiar rows of books detailing the bloodlines of all the different pureblood families.

She ran her fingers over the ancient bindings, gazing at them all with a hint of sadness in her eyes. Her years of research had brought up no results, but a small part of her still hoped to one day find something…

In the silence of the near-empty library, Emmeline could hear the Marauders talking several yards away behind the shelf. She caught snippets of a conversation:

"Brass scales?" Sirius's voice sounded confused.

"Er, yeah…" Remus said, sounding a bit odd. "To measure the, er, potion ingredients… we can't use mine 'cause I leant them to Marion Seville last week."

"Well, what about Wormtail's?"

"Oh… er… erm, mine are, er… broken," Peter stammered, sounding as odd as Remus.

"Okay…" Sirius said slowly, obviously picking up on his friends' weird behavior. "So what do we do then?"

Remus had lowered his voice enough so Emmeline couldn't pick up on what he was saying; however, she could faintly hear phrases like "over there" and "go ask." Emmeline, feeling like she was eavesdropping, tried to put her focus back on the books, but a few moments later there was the sound of footsteps approaching, and Sirius had suddenly appeared around the corner.

"Emmeline!" he grinned happily when he saw her, and he strode towards her. "Remus told me you were somewhere around here."

Emmeline smiled back, her heart thumping a little faster as she did. "Hey, yeah – what's up?"

"Not much. The guys and I need some brass scales for a potion we're brewing," Sirius rolled his eyes. "Apparently we don't have any to spare."

"Oh yeah?" Emmeline asked, biting back a smile. Sirius smirked at her.

"Yeah," he dropped his voice to a low whisper and glanced over his shoulder, grinning. "You know, my friends can be real bloody morons sometimes…"

Emmeline tried to suppress her giggles with little success, and Sirius snickered along with her.

"So you've come over to take my brass scales, then?" she grinned, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. Sirius's smile faded, and he blinked at her.

"What's that? Oh, er yeah…" he suddenly looked a bit embarrassed. "Just for today. Er, if it's alright with you, of course…"

"What? Oh yeah – it's totally fine," Emmeline said, smiling self-consciously. Why did the atmosphere suddenly get weird?

"Great," he smiled crookedly at her, and he looked her in the eyes for a moment. "Erm… thanks Emmeline."

Emmeline blushed, "No problem."

They stood there awkwardly for a few moments before Emmeline finally said: "My, er, potions bag is upstairs, so…" she gestured meekly past him.

"Oh, right – of course," Sirius said quickly, stepping aside. She began to walk back down the aisle, and to her surprise, Sirius fell in step beside her.

He was heading up to Gryffindor Tower with her… that was a bit unexpected. Emmeline's heart couldn't help but thump a little faster with what she could only describe as delight.

She and Sirius walked together toward the exit. As they went, they heard Remus, James, and Peter all snickering about something back at their table.

"So this is where you go during mealtimes now?" Sirius asked conversationally once they were out of the library and walking down the corridor. "I feel like I only see you in class nowadays."

"Oh… yeah," Emmeline's cheeks went pink. "A lot of homework to do, you know…"

Sirius nodded with a wry smile, "I know the feeling."

Emmeline smiled slightly, but said nothing else. There was a short pause as they continued to walk along.

"So… you're writing an essay about pureblood families or something?" Sirius asked after moment, and Emmeline remembered he had found her in the wizarding genealogy section. She blushed.

"What? Oh, no…" she said quickly. "Actually –" she hesitated a brief moment before shaking her head resignedly. "No, it's stupid."

"What?" Sirius sounded curious, and Emmeline bit her lip.

"Well," she said, and paused a moment. Sirius wouldn't laugh at her…

"I was looking up my mum's family, actually."

Sirius stopped in his tracks. He stared at her, looking heartily surprised, and Emmeline felt a small twinge of embarrassment shoot through her chest. She stopped to look at him.

"Your mum?" Sirius asked, brow furrowed. Emmeline glanced down at her hands and nodded.

"Yeah, er... she was a Greengrass," she looked back up at him. "One of the old wizarding families? My dad told me right before I left for Hogwarts."

Sirius was still staring at her. He blinked. "Oh."

"I don't really know much about her family, though – a lot of them sort of died out or married into Muggle families…" Emmeline went on. She and Sirius resumed walking down the corridor. "My dad's a Muggle, so he didn't really know a whole lot about it. Just that her name was Greengrass."

"I see," Sirius muttered. He paused for a moment. "So you were trying to research more about her family in the library?"

Emmeline shook her head dubiously. "I'd been trying for over five years – there's hardly any information on the Greengrass family. Most of the genealogies I found here were on the Black family, actually…" She smirked slightly, thinking Sirius would find his famous ancestry amusing. To her surprise, however, she caught him scowling to himself.

"Oh, I… I'm sorry," she stammered apologetically, blushing once again. Why didn't she remember he was sensitive about his family name?

Sirius's face softened. "No, it's okay," he muttered, looking slightly embarrassed. "It's not your fault… I just wish I could do something about your mum."

Emmeline didn't say anything for a moment. "It's all in the past," she eventually said with a shrug. She then looked at him with a small grin: "Besides – the people we love are always with us, even after death. Right?"

That was what he had said to her the night on the Astronomy Tower. Sirius stared at her for a moment before smiling slowly; there was an expression in his eyes that Emmeline had never seen in him before, but it made her heart glow.

"Right," he said quietly, his smile still in place.

They had finally reached the Fat Lady's portrait, and they clambered through it into the Gryffindor common room. Emmeline then turned to Sirius.

"My stuff's upstairs –" she gestured toward the girl's dormitory. "Erm… I'll just be a minute."

"Okay," Sirius smiled at her, and Emmeline blushed slightly before smiling back at him. She turned and hurried away up the stairs.

Sirius glanced around – a few people were back from dinner already, and were milling around while chatting amongst themselves. He shoved his hands awkwardly in his pockets.

"You think you're so smooth, don't you?"

Sirius glanced to his left, and noticed Siobhan Burke sitting alone beside a window and staring at him. She stood up, her snooty expression firmly in place as she tried to glare him down. Sirius wasn't going to be intimidated, however.

"Sorry?" He said to her coolly. "Did you say something?"

Siobhan took a step toward him, almond-shaped eyes narrowing. "What are you doing with Emmy?"

Sirius frowned at her. "I think she prefers 'Emmeline'…and it's none of your business."

Siobhan placed her hands on her hips, tilting her chin so her features looked more attractively menacing. "You don't think I know your angle, Black?"

She took another step toward him, and Sirius didn't know how to respond, so he said nothing.

"Everybody at Hogwarts knows your reputation," she went on, looking strangely triumphant. She took another step toward him and stopped, her eyes boring into his. "You just use girls like Emmy to your own advantage before turning around and breaking their hearts."

She looked fiercely pleased with herself for figuring him out, and she quirked an eyebrow, daring him to disagree. Sirius maintained his casual expression, however.

"Emmeline is a friend," he said, stressing her correct name. "And the girls I usually pursue aren't like her." She's better, he wanted to say, but stopped himself.

Siobhan stepped forward so that she and Sirius stood about a foot apart. They looked challengingly into each other's eyes. "Hm," she said after a moment, raising both eyebrows. "So she doesn't match well with the 'Great Sirius Black'?" she asked snootily.

Sirius frowned at her again, very aware of how close she was getting. Siobhan smirked at him with her perfect lips.

"…So who exactly could the right girl for you be, then?" she mused quietly, her eyes taunting him. Sirius stared back at her, gulping.

Someone behind him suddenly cleared their throat, and Sirius whipped around. Emmeline was standing there with her brass scales in hand, staring questioningly at the two of them. Sirius immediately took a step away from Siobhan, who had suddenly slipped away without a word.

"Oh… erm, thanks Em," Sirius walked up to Emmeline and took the scales she handed him. "So, er… I'll get these back to you tomorrow, then?"

"Yeah. Sounds good," Emmeline nodded, still frowning in a slightly confused way. Sirius, cheeks burning, quickly turned toward the portrait hole and hurried back toward the library, thankful to be out of Emmeline's questioning gaze.

Hope you liked this chapter guys! If you did, please review!

PS: I seriously love writing for Siobhan - does that make me a terrible person too? ;)