It was the morning after our argument and things between Lily and I have been rather strained. We send each other glances when we think the other one isn't looking, and apparently the new development has caught Mary and Marlene's attention because during breakfast they snapped at us.

"For Merlins sake you two just apologize already!" Marlene nodded along with Mary's words and they both watched us with expectant looks.

I closed my eyes with a tired sigh because I knew that they were right and at least I should apologize. "They're right Lily. I was getting upset because everything you said makes sense and I took that anger out on you."

Lily seemed surprised, but pleased nonetheless, "I forgive you, and I also apologize."

I held up a hand to stop her, "No Lily you have no reason to apologize. You made some very good points that are in need of investigating."

She must have seen something in my eyes because she had a small smirk on her face, "Investigating indeed," Lily murmured. "Do you mind if I borrow Hatty?"

My eyes narrowed in suspicion. Lily was always uncomfortable when I used Hatty to pull of a prank, but she never says anything about it because of how excited Hatty gets from being a part of the prank. "Yeah you can use her."

Lily gave me an innocent smile that I didn't believe for a single moment.

"Evans! Is that smile for me?"

Said smile immediately dropped as she stared at the boy standing behind me, "Not even in your dreams would I smile for you, Black."

Turning around in my seat I caught Sirius sending Lily a wink before he looked down at me, "Good morning my beautiful Violet."

I gave him a respectful nod while I was an internal mess. After last night when Lily told me he liked me I had thought about the possibility for hours. I was a complete hypocrite when describing what Lily did when it involved James because really, I did the same thing.

The fact that I actually have some sort of feelings for Black came as a shock to me. It slightly worried me that I've developed these feeling without even realizing it. And what made it worse was that Lily told me he likes me back, but I don't know if that's even possible. "Good morning Sirius. How are you feeling?"

Sirius gave a wistful sigh, "Much better now that I'm here with you."

My eyes rolled before I could stop them, "What do you want Sirius?"

He looked at me with mock hurt, "It hurts that you immediately assume I want something from you. Did it ever occur to you that I just wanted to hear the beauty that is your voice?"

"Ha ha very funny, now be serious."

"Oh but darling, "he wiggled his eyebrows, "I am Sirius."

I hugged because I knew I walked right into that one, "Come on Sirius, what did you really come over here for?"

"Well besides being graced by your presence," I saw a flash of nervousness before it was replaced by his usual cocky look, "I want to ask you out to dinner for tonight."

His words took me by surprise, "Dinner? What like a date?"

"Yeah! Well er, unless you don't want it to be a date–which is completely fine! I don't want there to be any confusion. If you want it to be a date or not then okay–" I stood up from my seat and pressed a hand against his mouth.

"Calm down Sirius you're rambling."

He took a deep breath through his nose and after he nodded his head I took my hand away from his mouth, "I would love to go out on a date with you," excitement lit up in his eyes but I raised a finger for him to wait, "but we can't just leave the castle to go out for dinner."

Sirius smirked at me, "I've already got that covered. Dumbledore gave me permission for us leave the castle for the night. We have to be back by curfew though."

"You really thought this out huh?" I murmured.

Sirius nodded his head happily and I sighed in defeat, "Alright I'll allow you to take me out, and if it ends well it can count as a date. Fair?"

The amount of excitement radiating off of him made it hard to contain my smile. "Yeah that's perfectly fine! Meet my by the front entrance at the beginning of dinner," and with that Sirius rushed off to the other Marauders and started talking rapidly. Probably telling them all about his upcoming "date".

Sitting back down in my seat I caught Dumbledore looking between Sirius and I with twinkling eyes.

Dumbledore wasn't the only one staring at me, and I successfully ignored all of the curious glances. There was only one person staring at me, and it was the only one I couldn't ignore. "Yes Lily?"

"You just accepted to go out on a date with Black. Black!"

"Yes I did." I ate the last bite of my breakfast and looked her in the eye, "Last night you told me he liked me," my voice was lowered so only she could hear me, "I thought a lot about it last night, but I'm still not sure if he likes me so this will help."

Lily gave me a searching look before nodding, "Alright. I agree that this will help you realize how much he likes you, so don't mess it up."

Huffing at her lack of faith I stood up from my seat and followed the students who were slowly trickling out of the Great Hall to make my way towards my first class.

Throughout the day my thoughts were plagued by the upcoming "date" between me and Sirius. I was more worried about having awkward conversations and messing everything up. Most girls would probably be more worried about what they would wear and then be smothered in awkward silences…oh my god what was I gonna wear!

The bell rang, signaling the end of the period and I bolted for the door. It was the last class of the day and now I was really panicking. How could I not have thought of this earlier? There I was worried about a possible awkward pause during dinner when I didn't even have anything decent to wear.

"Danielle?!"

"Can't talk gotta go!" Lily watched me sprint down the corridor with surprise before rushing after me.

By the time I made it up to the seventh floor I was panting from exhaustion. I did my best to push it away as I half-jogged half-sprinted to the Gryffindor portrait hole.

"Danielle what on earth is the matter?"

Looking over to see Lily's equally exhausted form I was too tired to use my words so I waved for her to follow me into the common room.

We both climbed into the common room and I rushed up to our dormitory where I threw open my trunk. The mechanism that lowered me into the trunk never felt so slow in my entire life, but eventually I made it down to my dismal closet.

There was no way I was going to wear sweatpants or a tank top so there goes half of my closet. I owned about fifteen robes, and over half of those were school robes. Wow I need to go shopping.

"This is where you put your clothes?" Turning around I saw Lily standing near the lift that brings you in and out of my trunk.

"Yeah, my absolutely useless clothes."

Lily bit her lip as she surveyed my dismal choice of clothing, "Yeah it's pretty useless." She looked over at me with calculating eyes before nodding to herself and grabbing my arm, "Come on, you look like you're my size."

Unable to protest I was dragged out of my trunk. As it turns out only one person should go onto that lift at a time because we got a little stuck near the top. Thankfully we were able to get out, but now we knew better.

Lily rushed over to her trunk and flung it open. She was elbow deep in a sea of colorful clothes, occasionally picking out a shirt or a pair of pants. Sometimes she would set them aside, and sometimes she would put them back into her trunk.

After what felt like forever Lily made a noise of triumph and pulled out a purple shirt. She rummaged through the pile next to her and pulled out a black skirt. "Here," she thrust them into my arms, "try these on."

I pinched the skirt between my thumb and forefinger and held it up, "This is a skirt."

"Yes now put it on!"

Not wanting to argue I shuffled into the bathroom and set the clothes in the counter. With a sigh I slowly peeled off my school robes and replaced them with the clothes Lily had given me.

I didn't know the first thing of fashion, but seeing how well the outfit hugged my curves I knew that I looked hot. The black skirt stopped right before my knees, and the sleeves of the deep purple shirt ended at my elbows.

"I don know about you Lily," I opened the bathroom door and struck a pose, "but I think I look hot."

Lily looked at me with wide eyes before jumping up with a girlish squeal. She clapped her hands together and pressed them to her chin, "Merlin, Danielle you look gorgeous! If Black didn't like you before then he's going to love you now."

A sheepish smile made its way across my face, "I don't know about that."

"You're right." I looked at her with surprise. "We need to do your hair and makeup, then get you some shoes."

My spluttering protests went ignored as Lily dragged me back into the bathroom to start the various hours of torture to my hair and face.

If one was to walk by the front entrance of the castle they would have seen a once in a lifetime sight.

The handsome Sirius Black was wearing a white long sleeved v-neck and a pair of black dress pants and sleek black shoes. But that wasn't what was odd. What was odd was that he was pacing back and forth in front of the doors with visible nervousness.

He isn't known for being nervous for anything. Always going ahead with a brave attitude and a cocky smirk. Now he's been reduced to a nervous wreck who's worried that he's messed up his hair from running his hands through it so much.

"Sirius?"

Startled by the sudden voice made Sirius whip his head up to stare at the one responsible for saying his name so timidly. What he saw made his breath catch in his throat, and he's pretty sure his heart skipped a beat.

Danielle was fidgeting with the same nervous energy he had felt not a minute earlier. She obviously doesn't realize just how beautiful she looked.

The ends of her hair fell in perfect ringlets instead of their usual straight locks. She was wearing a perfect amount of makeup that made her entire face glow. Hugging her body was a simple purple top that matched her eyes, along with a black skirt and simple black flats.

"Wow Danielle you look…wow."

Seeing Sirius had been just as nervous helped make me feel a little better, and his reaction to my appearance helped even more so. "Thank you Sirius, you look handsome as well."

We watched each other for a moment before Sirius seemed to snap out of his slightly dazed thoughts and walked up next to me. He held out his arm and gave me a charming smile, "Allow me to escort you mi'lady."

I grasped his arm with a smile, "I would be honored sir." Taking a hold of his arm we both left the castle with goofy grins plastered on our faces.

"So where are we going?"

"Well usually I would take my dates out to Madam Puddifoot's." He must have felt my shiver of dread because he nodded, "My feelings exactly. But tonight I wanted to do something a little different. I'll be honest It's not the fanciest place, but the food is great."

I sighed in relief. From what I knew about Madam Puddifoot's it was a real lovey dovey tea shop that I had no interest in ever going to. "So then where are we going?"

Sirius smirked down at me, "It's a surprise." Huffing, I turned my head away so he wouldn't see my amused smile.

We continued our walk towards Hogsmead in silence. Thankfully it wasn't an awkward silence, but it would have been nice if there was at least some kind of conversation or else I would end up feeling awkward.

I was so lost in thought on trying to find a good topic of conversation that I hadn't even noticed we stopped walking and were standing in front of the restaurant we would be having our "date" in.

"Danielle?"

Snapping out of my thoughts I looked around until my gaze finally settled on the building in front of us. "The Three Broomsticks?"

Sirius shifted nervously, "Erm, yeah. I know it's not exactly the greatest place to go for a first date–I mean–" he started spluttering apologies and tried to come up with a word to describe our small outing.

Eventually he realized that I was smiling at him in amusement and he snapped his mouth with an audible click. "It's alright Sirius. You could have taken me to Zonko's and I would be fine with it."

Sirius nodded before rolling his shoulders and putting on his usual cocky facade. This "date" must really be getting to him if his usual mask is slipping.

Pushing open the door to The Three Broomsticks, Sirius held it open and gestured for me to go in first while giving a slight bow, "Ladies first."

A smile tugged at my lips, "Well you certainly know how to treat a lady don't you?" Passing over the threshold I looked around the pub and smiled at the warm atmosphere.

The door shut behind me, but I barely heard it over all of the conversations and laughter of the pub's occupants.

An arm wrapped around my shoulders and I tilted my head to see that it belonged to Sirius. He began leading me over to a small table located next to one of the pubs windows.

Sirius removed his arm from my shoulders and pulled out one of the chairs. When he looked at me expectantly I realized he had pulled it out for me. I accepted it with a grateful nod, and I watched him walk around the table and sit in the seat across from me.

"You're being awfully…chivalrous tonight." I raised a brow as I waited for some sort of explanation.

"I'm a Gryffindor," he gave me a cocky grin, "I'm always chivalrous."

I snorted in amusement, "Well I've certainly never seen it."

Sirius chuckled, "You've just never been around to see it."

Just then a rather pretty woman with blonde hair and green eyes walked up to our table. "Back already Mr. Black? I would have thought it'd be a few more weeks until I saw your face again–what with how your last date went."

Sirius just smiled at the woman innocently, "It's good to see you too Rosie."

"Rosie" just nodded her head with pursed lips. She turned her attention to me, "You better watch out for this one girlie. This boy here is nothin but trouble."

"Aw come on Rosie you know me," we both looked over at Sirius.

The woman had a sly smirk on her face, "Oh I know you alright. Always comin in here with your troublesome friends." She shook her head, "So what will you be havin today you two?"

Sirius spoke up, "Two butterbeers please."

The woman nodded her head before making her way towards the bar where she grabbed two tankards and started filling them up a golden brown liquid.

"Who is that?" I turned my head towards Sirius.

"That's Madam Rosmerta. She runs this place."

I nodded my head in understanding, "You two seem fairly close."

"Careful Violet or I might think you're jealous."

I scowled at the smirk he was giving me, "Careful Black or else I might just have to abandon you on our outing." I put a heavy emphasis on the word outing to remind him I have yet to think of this as a date.

The smirk melted from his face and he straightened in his seat. Before he could say anything Madam Rosmerta came back with the butterbeers. "Here ya go. Anything else?" We both shook our heads politely. "Alright then. Holler if you need anything."

She walked away and we both dragged our tankards closer to us. I gave mine a shrewd glance that Sirius noticed. "What's wrong Violet?"

I shook my head, "Nothing. I've just don't think I've ever had butterbeer before."

Sirius gave me a scandalized look, "Never had butterbeer?! Well then it's a good thing I brought you here! Go on try it." He leaned forward in his seat and gave me an eager stare.

"Alright alright!" Picking up the tankard I brought it to my lips and took a small sip. Setting it back onto the table I ran my tongue across my bottom lip as I contemplated the flavor. "It's pretty good. Kinda like butterscotch."

Looking over at Sirius I saw him staring at my mouth with a glazed look. I cleared my throat and his eyes refocused onto my eyes, "Um, erm, yeah. Butterscotch."

A smirk tugged at my lips and I took another, larger sip of my butterbeer. "So tell me about yourself Sirius."

"Huh?" He seemed genuinely confused.

"Yeah like…what's your favorite color?"

His eyebrows rose, as if surprised I would ask that of all things. "My favorite color? Well it would have to be a deep purple–possibly violet–color." He gave me a flirtatious wink.

I huffed, "Come on I'm serious."

"You're not serious, I'm Sirius!"

I gave him a hard stare and he finally caved, "Oh alright. My favorite color is red. What's yours?"

Naturally, I thought. "Mine is blue."

"Blue?"

"Yup," I popped the 'p'. "Any kind of blue. Navy, Royal, Sky, you name it, I love it."

"Alright." Sirius nodded his head and seemed to be thinking of his own questions, "What about…your favorite Quidditch position?"

Leave it to him to ask about sports, "Probably seeker. Yours?"

He gave me a look as if I should already know this, but answered anyway, "Beater." I nodded my head. It was the position he played for the Gryffindor team. "You know I've never seen you come to one of our games."

I blinked at him in surprise. I didn't think he would have noticed. "Well I'm not that much into the sport, just flying."

Now he seemed surprised, "You fly?"

"I did once sometime last year. I was pretty good, although I panicked in the beginning."

"Maybe you should try out for seeker next year. Bentley–our current seeker–is graduating this year so the position will be open."

I raised a brow, "Sirius I just told you I'm not that into the sport."

He shrugged, "You can't blame me for trying right?" Chuckling, we moved onto another topic.

Throughout the night we continued to ask the other random questions to learn more about each other. Favorite flower, pastime, class. Pretty soon we were finishing up our third tankard of butterbeer when we finally realized how late it was getting.

"Ah bloody hell!" Sirius fished out the necessary amount of galleons and set them onto the table before grabbing onto my wrist and dragging me out of the pub, "We have ten minutes to get back to the castle."

Now understanding why he was dragging me around I picked up my pace, and soon enough we were running for the castle. It took us about five minutes to get to the castle entrance, and by that time we were slightly panting from exhaustion.

We looked at each other and broke into breathless chuckles. "I've never had to run back to the castle after a date." His eyes widened because he still wasn't sure how I felt about the date. He considered it a date, but I might not.

Whatever worries he had were swept away when he saw my soft smile, "That was actually my first date–and yes it was a date whether I would have admitted it or not."

A beaming smile broke out across his face, and he held out his arm. I took it gratefully and the both of us leisurely made our way up to the seventh floor.

Unfortunately we didn't get very far before a familiar voice sounded from behind us. "Danielle?"

Turning around, I kept my grip on Sirius' arm as I saw who the owner of the voice was, "Snape? What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same," Snape sneered at us. "Shouldn't you be in your common room?"

"Shouldn't you?" Sirius snapped back.

I lightly slapped Sirius in the chest. I gave him a stern look before returning my attention to Snape. "We were out on a date." Sirius extracted his arm from my grip and wrapped it possessively around my shoulders.

"And if you will excuse us, we will be returning to our common room." Sirius started pulling me away, "I suggest you do the same, Snivellus."

I discreetly pinched his arm–internally marveling at the muscles there–but he didn't even flinch. That or he didn't show it.

Unknown to me, Sirius had looked back at Snape and have him a victorious smirk. Snape just narrowed his eyes and gave me one last look before turning to make his way back to the Slytherin common room.

Raising my hand I went to grab Sirius' arm to remove it from my shoulders, but instead he grabbed my hand and held it on his own, going so far as to interlock our fingers.

I gave a few half-hearted tugs, but Sirius wouldn't let go. With a put upon sigh I gave the password, but when the portrait opened there was no light in the common room.

I gave Sirius a look of confusion, but instead of returning the look he ushered me inside. The portrait closed behind us and we were soon immersed in the darkness. I began feeling uneasy, and just as I was about to voice these thoughts to Sirius the lights flashed on and every Gryffindor jumped from their hiding places to yell "Surprise!"

My mouth was gaping open as I looked at the decorated common room. There were balloons, cake, snacks, drinks, and decorations. A few people were laughing at my reaction to my apparent surprise party.

"What is this?"

Lily walked up to me with open arms and a smirk, "You didn't think I would let you get away with doing nothing for your birthday did you?" She pushed Sirius away from me as she wrapped me in her arms.

I returned the hug wholeheartedly, "You planned this?"

We let go and held each other at arms length, "I had a little help of course."

"From who?" I released her shoulders and looked at her suspiciously.

"Potter, Remus, and Pettigrew. Oh and Hatty."

I raised a brow, "What about Sirius?"

"He was supposed to find a way to distract you while we set this all up. Apparently he decided to take you out on a…date?"

I huffed in disbelief, "Yeah it was a date. Now where is he?" Twisting and turning I finally spotted Sirius had drifted over to his friends by the drink table. "I'll be right back."

Lily gave me a warning look that I ignored, and I made my way over to the Marauders. "So you guys planned this all out huh?"

They looked at each other in surprise before James spoke up, "Yeah, so did Lily and your house elf."

"And uh," I dragged my tongue across my teeth as I looked over to Sirius, "you're idea of a distraction was to take me out on a date?" Even James, Remus, and Pettigrew seemed interested in his answer.

"Well erm, yeah. I'm really sorry, but I mean, I've wanted to ask you for a while now so–"

Rolling my eyes I grabbed the front of his shirt and dragged his face towards mine, "There's nothing to be sorry about." I placed a kiss on both of his cheeks before pulling away with a shy smile, "I enjoyed our date and I hope we can do it again sometime," and with that I walked back over to Lily.

"Well well, aren't you two nice and cozy together."

I sent Lily a playful smirk and nudged her, "I honestly have no idea," and with that the party continued in full swing.

It lasted throughout most of the night, and by early morning people had either retired to their dorm or passed out on the couches or at the tables. Drinks and snacks were strewn about the common room, and in my tired state I felt really bad for the houselves that would be cleaning it up.

"Damn I'm tired," bringing my hands up I rubbed at my eyes, "Are you guys tired?"

I was sitting on the floor next to Lily. Pettigrew had gone up to bed hours ago, Remus looked about ready to pass out on the chair he was sitting in, while James and Sirius were leaning against one another on the sofa. The four of them made vague noises of agreement.

"I'm going up to bed." Lily and I helped each other off of the floor. Lily made to go straight up to the dorms, but when she realized I hadn't followed her she turned around to see I had stayed by the couches.

"Thanks for the party Remus," I leaned down and kissed him on the cheek, effectively wiping away any drowsiness.

Next I pressed a light kiss against James' cheek, "You too James."

Both boys were giving me wide eyed stares, but I ignored them as I looked into Sirius' hopeful eyes. He turned his head and presented his own cheek to me but I shook my head. The action made the hope in Sirius' eyes dim.

I took a deep breath, and before I could chicken out I swooped down and pressed a light kiss against Sirius' lips. I pulled away before he could shake out of his surprise and squeaked out a quick "thanks" as I scurried away from the boys towards the staircase.

Lily watched me pass with wide eyes but soon shook off her shock and raced after me. When she caught up to me she had to force herself to stop running and be quiet or else she would wake up Mary and Marlene. "Danielle what was that?" she hissed at me.

My face was tomato red as I responded, "I don't know I just did it!" I buried my face into my hands and groaned, "Oh I shouldn't have done that!"

Lily walked up to me and gently pried my hands away from my face, "Do you regret it?"

I opened my mouth to say 'no', but I paused. Do I regret it? I have no reason to really. I like him (though I won't admit it out loud), and I had such a nice time tonight from both the date and the party. "No I guess not."

She nodded, "Well then there's nothing to get upset over."

Sighing through my nose I nodded and made my way over to the bed, and as I got ready for bed I wondered what was going to happen between Sirius and I.

AN: The funny thing is it's actually my birthday today.