AN- Warning: This chapter contains a notable amount of fluff. This is, after all, going to be a chapter about the first moments of their official relationship.

Chapter 21

"Where are you taking me?"

It was the next day. Kate found it surreal, she woke up that morning and realized that she was dating Sirius Black. By now all of her friends had gotten used to Kate's mood swings, going from distant and withdrawn to giddy and happy. They had no idea that she had fallen for Sirius, and Kate and Sirius agreed last night to keep from telling their friends for the time being.

After a day of taking exhaustive exams in all of her classes, she was handed a note by Sirius, asking to meet her in the same corridor they had met last time. Now Sirius was leading her down some hallways.

"Ta da!" said Sirius, stopping in front of an open broom cupboard.

"It's a broom cupboard," said Kate slowly, waiting for Sirius to make his point.

"Yeah," said Sirius, nodding. "What's more private than a broom cupboard?" He tried to nudge her inside, but her feet remained firmly glued to the floor.

"Oh no! No! Sirius!"

"What?" he said cluelessly.

"You did not just take me to a broom cupboard to snog! I thought we'd be classier than that!"

"It's just for the time being," sighed Sirius. "Until we can both muster the courage to tell our friends about us, we have to stick with our resolution to stay a secret. Anywhere else is out in the open, anybody could walk in and then tell the whole school. And come on. You know you've always wanted to disappear into a cupboard with a handsome boy, admit it!"

Sirius smiled charmingly at Kate and took her by the end. Kate sighed and reluctantly allowed Sirius to lead her into the closet. With any other boy she would have refused, but Sirius was persuasive.

"That doesn't stop this from being dirty," said Kate once they were inside. Sirius muttered lumos with his wand to give them some light, then set the wand on a shelf. "I can't wait until summer time, where we can actually schedule real dates and not hide in cupboards."

"Speaking of which," said Sirius after he had start giving her small kisses on her neck, "I counted my uncle's inheritance money. He left me enough so that I am now financially independent. What with me turning seventeen in a few weeks, I figure this summer would be a ripe time to move out of James's parents. Find my own place."

Kate smiled. "That's wonderful. Very mature. But why are you telling me?"

"Because I want you, Kate Nolan, to help me choose a place."

"Really?" gushed Kate.

"So you'll do it?"

"As long as you let me base my decision solely on the color of the house."

Sirius laughs, "This should be fun."

In the darkness, Sirius placed his lips gently on Kate's and they started in on each other.

Time seemed to fly by, and the more time she spent in the closet, the less she minded that it. Sirius had her so caught up in his kisses that she couldn't think straight. She'd never done so much snogging in her life.

However near the end of the night, a dose of the real world interrupted in the form of pouring light. For one horrifying moment, Kate and Sirius broke off to look at the opened doorway, thinking they'd been caught by a professor, or worse, one of their friends.

Instead, it was a gaping first year standing in the doorway.

"Uh," was all the first year croaked.

Sirius scowled. "Sorry, this space is occupied. Please try again later!" Sirius slammed the door shut at the first year, and tried to return to his position with Kate.

She however would have none of it, and at the last second yanked her head away when he pulled in for a kiss, mock cheerfully chanting, "Okay, we're done."

Sirius cursed under his breath as Kate exited the broom cupboard. He followed her out.

"Are we going to stop every time a problem crops up?" asked Sirius, trying to conceal the annoyance in his voice.

Kate abruptly spun around and faced him, a stricken expression on her face. "This secrecy thing is going to drive me mad, Sirius! We have to tell our friends, soon, or they'll find out the hard way. Through gossip."

"Well, it's not like they wouldn't deserve it," snapped Sirius. "James has been a complete berk lately. He's still throwing a hissy fit over Evans."

"Same with Lily, she's been really moody any time Potter is brought up," sighed Kate.

"We should just toss them in a broom cupboard, don't let them out until they work out their 'aggressions'," Sirius smirked evilly at the idea.

"That's why you're not in charge of anything," said Kate, biting back a laugh. She glanced at her wrist watch instead, and was startled to find that it was nearing midnight. "Come on, we've been gone for two hours. It's late."

Sirius let out a fake scoff as he followed Kate down the corridor. "You're not going to be one of those girlfriends, are you?"

Kate smirked at being called his girlfriend for the first time. "You know very well I'm one of those girlfriends," she replied smartly.

"I know, I've just always wanted to say that."

It was difficult to get passed the portrait of the common room, since the Fat Lady first wanted to lecture at them how frustrating it is to be woken in the middle of the night, but she eventually let them in after Sirius repeatedly shouted, "Diricawl!" (the password) at her portrait.

Once they were inside the dim crimson, deserted room, Kate gave Sirius a peck on the cheek and whispered, "Goodnight."

Sirius, however, had other plans, and grabbed Kate by the elbow as she turned away. "Ah, not just yet, m'dear! Weren't you complaining earlier how the broom cupboard was lacking a romantic vibe? Well, this seems pretty cozy to me." He gestured toward their common room.

Kate grinned, then grabbed his hand to lead him to the red couch. "I said it wasn't classy, not romantic. Because anything that involves -" Kate kissed Sirius on the lips, "Sirius -" another kiss, "don't-know-your-middle-name -" another kiss, "Black -" another, "is romantic."

"Orion," said Sirius as they fell sideways together on the couch.

Kate paused yet another kiss, and said with a coy smirk, "That would make your initials S.O.B."

"Shut up," laughed Sirius, and they comfortably sunk into the couch so that Kate was lying on top of him. They kissed into the night.

"Ho-ly shit."

Those were the first words out of Merle's mouth that morning, the last morning of sixth year. There were truly no other words to express her shock, her dismay, at finding Kate Nolan and Sirius Black sleeping on the Gryffindor common room couch together.

Merle dashed up the girl's dormitory to snatch Lily. Lily was the one person who had to know.

When the two girls returned back downstairs, a crowd had formed around the sleeping couple. It consisted of some fifth years, a few seventh years, and all of the sixth years, just about anyone who were familiar with Kate and Sirius. Lily's hands cupped around her mouth in disbelief. Merle glanced at Sirius's friends, James and Peter, both of them were slightly stunned. Remus Lupin had been missing since yesterday, something about an ill mother, so he couldn't be here to witness this.

Eventually, the curious chatter grew to be so loud that it awoke both Kate and Sirius.

Kate blinked, and moved, until she realized she was on top of human skin. She looked down and saw Sirius, also stirring awake. After a few confusing seconds, Kate remembered that she and Sirius had spent their last hours of the night in the common room. They must have been so tired that they fell asleep on the couch instead of returning to their dorms.

In any other situation, Kate would have found waking up in Sirius's arms sweet, even exciting, but the voices floating around the room droned out any notions of excitement from her head.

"Hey," murmured Sirius, slightly smirking at Kate.

"I think we have an audience," said Kate ominously.

She chose that moment to sit up, off of Sirius, and glance around the Gryffindor common room uncomfortably. It was only around a group of ten people surrounding them, gossiping and staring at them. Kate's gaze landed on Lily and Merle. While Merle was looking on the verge of laughter and shaking her head in disbelief, Lily simply stared at Kate, stunned beyond words.

Sirius had enough. "What the hell is everyone looking at?" he announced loudly. "Why don't you all go back to your knitting... or something."

The crowd dispersed, with the exception of James and Lily, their two best friends, waiting for some sort of explanation. Once the common room was completely emptied, save for a two first years in the background who were minding their own business, James was the first to speak.

"I know this goes without saying," James begun, "but what the hell is going on?"

"Yeah, I've been meaning to tell you," said Sirius, sitting up and shooting Kate a look that said 'This is it.' "Me and Kate, we're - "

"Don't finish that sentence!" Lily suddenly cut in. She looked at Kate desperately. "I don't understand. You guys were always so... difficult."

"I know," said Kate. "It just, sort of happened. An accident."

"When?"

"The other day. Sirius was feeling down, so I hugged him, then things got out of hand and we kissed. It just took off from there."

"Why were you hugging him in the first place?"

Kate refrained from telling Lily about Alphard Black's death, she didn't feel it was her place to tell. "He was feeling down, about something."

"My uncle died," supplied Sirius.

James looked a tad output at this information. "Uh, excuse me? Why wasn't I informed of this?" said James.

Kate glanced at Sirius, "You didn't tell him?"

"I was getting to it. Look, guys, we're not expecting you to be leaping for joy for us. But this reaction is really bugging. You're just staring at us like we're insane."

"You are insane!" burst Lily. "You're completely not right for each other!"

Sirius decided to be cute with her. "But you see, that's what makes us so right for each other!"

James and Lily made noises of objection, but they both ran out of things to say to them. Kate nudged Sirius and eyed the Fat Lady's portrait, indicating that she wanted to leave. James and Lily would need time to let this new information sink in.

"Right, well," announced Sirius. He suddenly picked Kate up and slung her over his shoulder. "We'll leave you two to deal with your shock. We're off to replenish our stomachs with food."

Sirius carried Kate out over his shoulder. "Bye you guys!" said Kate, laughing and waving at them.

Once James and Lily were left in the common room by themselves, only one thing could be said to break the resonant silence they were left in:

"They've gone completely mental!"

NEW An-

Ok Ok I know the ending is abrupt, but I was in such a hurry to end it. If you guys want more Kate/Sirius use your imagination.

Anyway, about the old AN, I'm sorry but there won't be an epilogue. Sorry! I wrote and rewrote part of an epilogue but all the versions turned out to be crap. So we'll just leave it at that.