A/N: Thank you so much for all of your support, encouragement and reviews. Your reviews really help me write faster and keep updating sooner rather than later. It was snowing today and which made it a nice cozy day to curl up in bed and finish this chapter off. Enjoy and please review!

"She got the power in her hand, to shock you like you won't believe,"

-Electric Feel, MGMT

The party was in full swing by 9:30. The Common Room was crowded with people, sweet wrappers littered the tables along with empty butterbeer bottles. Peter and Remus had done an amazing job procuring supplies for the impromptu party, having gone to the Kitchen and had made a discreet underground tunnel run to Hogsmeade.

People were laughing, dancing, chatting. In general everyone seemed to be having a good time.

Lea was perched on top of a table with an empty butterbeer bottle hanging loosely from her hands. Remus eased himself next to her and took a swig from his own bottle.

"Having fun?" He asked smiling.

"Lily hijacked my record collection," Lea grumbled as she heard the familiar strains of "The Immigrant Song" began playing.

"Who is this?" He asked tapping his foot to the music.

"Led Zeppelin!" she looked at him with astonishment. "C"mon Remy! I played you some stuff last summer!"

"You played a lot of music to me last summer! And the summer before that, and the summer before that!" He exclaimed. She shook her head and placed her bottle behind her on the table.

"So how was the big kiss?" Lea inquired. Remus smiled at the memory of it. "It was…big I suppose. She just came up and threw her arms around him, he spun her around and then she just kissed him."

"I can't believe she kissed him in front of all those people!" Lea said.

"I know! Our little Lily is all grown up," Remus chuckled. Lea elbowed him good-naturedly.

They sat there chatting whilst watching the happenings of the party. People watching was one of their favourite things to do, and people watching at a party was entertaining.

Lily and James were sitting together on the couch laughing and playing Exploding Snap with some of the Sixth Years. Peter by some fantastic luck was talking with a fifth year girl and by the looks of it she was giving him her full attention. Sirius (antler free now) was surrounded by a gaggle of females who were giggling themselves silly just being around him.

Lea rolled her eyes at this. God the way some girls threw themselves at him…he was just some bloke.

He caught her eye and Lea laughed quietly seeing his annoyed expression. She remembered him telling her that the fan club actually scared him.

"Maybe you should be nice and rescue him," Remus pointed out mildly. He had caught them staring at each other.

"He's a big boy…" she mused as she watched people dance.

"Can't you be a good Samaritan for once and just help him out?" Remus pushed. She tugged at his hair and retorted, "Remind me why I'm mates with you again?"

"Cos you love me," he replied cheerfully.

"You know at times like these, I reaeeeaaaaallly question whether or not I do,"

"Go and be nice," Remus gave her a little shove off the table and she muttered something before making her way towards Sirius.

Sirius was having a difficult time extracting himself from the twittering girls around him. There was too much of cleavage, too much of hair and too much of perfume around him. And it made him really uncomfortable that a good number of these admirers were fourth and fifth years. He turned eighteen in two months for pete's sake.

He had seen Lea and Remus laughing and talking earlier and felt a pang of jealousy at seeing her so at ease with one of his best mates. He wished that he were in Remus' shoes at that moment. Actually he wished he were one of those people in Lea's world where they talked like that all the time.

Sirius mentally slapped himself again for being such a pansy when it came to Lea.

Then he heard her voice call his name and he thanked his lucky stars that he had been partnered with her.

"Sirius!" she called out again as she made elbowed her way through the girls. He felt a ray of relief wash over him.

"Excuse me, pardon me, oopsies, sorry," Lea commented as she shoved her elbows more harder than needed into some girls. They threw her dirty looks and she looked innocently back at them.

"Hey Sirius, Remus and I were wondering if you'd like to join us in a round of Charades, Lily and James are in too," she told.

"Yeah! I'm game!" Sirius replied breathing a little easier. She smiled at him and shook her head slightly. He returned her smile with a grin of his own. She waggled her fingers at him and motioned for him to follow her. She began to stick out her elbows again as she prepared to make her way through the crowd. But before she took another step Sirius grabbed her hand and held on to it. He held his breath for a moment and hoped she wouldn't let go.

To his utter surprise, he felt her hand grip his hand tighter in her own. Her hand was small and cool and he held on tightly as she led their way through the crowd.

He collapsed on a chair near the table where Remus was now talking to Marlene. Lea took up her seat on the table again and swung her legs back and forth.

"Are we really going to play charades?" Sirius asked.

She laughed and shook her head. "No, Remus here pushed me into performing a good deed for the day, so I rescued you."

"Oh thank god. Not that I did not want to play charades but I'm buggered. And also thank you for rescuing me," he added as he tilted on the hind legs of the chair.

"Be careful Sirius, you don't want to topple over backwards," Marlene cautioned as she watched his movements.

"Psshhhh don't worry love," Sirius waved a hand. Lea bit her cheek and swung a leg against one the legs of the chair as he tilted back, and then he and the chair toppled backwards.

Remus rubbed his neck trying to mask his grin and Marlene was unsuccessfully trying to stifle her giggles. Lea smiled craftily at him and he glared at her.

"Lea!"

"Oh come on! I rescued you, that was my good deed of the day, and I just had the itch to feel naughty!" she replied.

"Then go and do the horizontal tango with someone if you want to be naughty!" He retorted as he rolled off the chair. He just laid on the ground for a moment.

"Oh c'mon Sirius, get up mate," Remus chided him gently. He toed him with his foot.

"No, I'm quite comfortable down here," he said mildly.

"Grow up and get up Sirius!" Lea told him as she hopped down from her seat. Sirius took the opportunity and swiped one of his legs behind her feet, effectively clothes lining her, with his leg and she fell face first.

Unfortunately Sirius had not thought this through properly and hadn't calculated the trajectory of her fall correctly, because she fell face first right on top of him.

Smooth move you git! His mind berated him.

Sirius felt the wind being knocked out of him when she fell on top of him and winced as her head collided into his collarbones. Then he felt her chest against his and swore at his stupidity.

You, Sirius Black are a first class idiot, the voice inside his head said smugly.

She was right on top of him for Christ sake. All over, on top of him.

He had to admit it, it was a nice feeling. She was soft and pliant.

And she still hadn't gotten off of him.

Why hadn't she gotten off?

Maybe she realized that he and his body were finally awesome.

For a fleeting moment Sirius' insides jumped up and down at this but then the more rational part of him reasoned that she was probably still stunned from the impact.

"Wow, I thought I was being overly affectionate today at the Quidditch pitch, but I didn't expect you, Lea of all people to be so comfortable with such blatant PDA." Lily's voice said over them. She didn't sound too amused.

James on the other hand started laughing. "What's going on here?"

"Lea and Sirius are being children," Remus answered. And with that Lea groaned and rolled herself off Sirius and lay on the ground next to him.

"Hey, he was the one who clotheslined me!" she grumbled as she stretched.

"Only you two would engage in violence at a party," Lily commented sarcastically. Marlene snorted.

"Well not all of us are quite grown up yet Lily," Sirius remarked with a serious face. Lea sniggered and slapped a hand on his chest. He felt the same stupid fluttering sensation he got nowadays whenever she was near him or touched him. Stupid fluttery feelings.

"Well Lily and I are going to hang out upstairs—" James began before Sirius interrupted "Hang out or make-out? I'd like to know if I'm going to be sleeping on the couch tonight."

"Sirius!" Lea exclaimed. She smacked his arm. Lily blushed and James narrowed his eyes at him. He took out his wand and pointed it at his mate.

"Oi! Don't want to set a bad example for everyone else remember, you're Head Boy. Besides, Sirius already got his arse kicked by Lea earlier," Lily said as she laid a gentle hand on James' arm. He lowered his arm.

"Lea beat you up? No offence Lea I didn't think you were that strong," James remarked.

"No, she kicked my ass with her wand. She gave me antler's for god's sake!" Sirius protested.

"You had antlers, on your head? How did I miss this?" James cried.

"You were probably locked in a supply closet with your girlfriend," Marlene said in a cocky voice. Lily growled at her and Marlene laughed and pressed a kiss to her roommate's cheek.

"Oh. Yeah I wouldn't put it past that, anyway we'll be upstairs." James said with a flourish before grabbing Lily's hand. She waved goodbye at them laughing at James.

"Aw man I'll bet we're all sleeping on the couches tonight," Sirius muttered.

By one o clock, the Common Room had emptied out except for a few Sixth Years and themselves. Marlene had gone upstairs to bed and Remus and Peter had fallen asleep, Remus in an armchair and Peter on the rug before the fireplace. That left Sirius and Lea still awake.

"Aren't you tired yet?" Sirius asked as he yawned. She shook her head and played with her wand. Sparks shot out from the end of it.

"Sirius, I slept till four in the afternoon, I'm wide awake," she told him.

"I took a three hour nap! And I'm falling off to sleep!" he protested.

"So go to bed, or actually go and check if Lily and James are asleep,"

"They wouldn't…she wouldn't have…" Sirius trailed off unsure of what to say. Lea understood him at once.

"Oh god no! Lily's not that kind of girl," she assured him. Sirius breathed in relief. He was pretty sure Lily wasn't like that but you never know with some people.

"But what if she's asleep? I don't want to wake her up," Sirius worried. Lea smiled.

"Relax, she'll probably be so embarrassed that she'll want to get in her own bed asap, besides she'd be more embarrassed to wake up with all of four of you in the room."

"Well…we could always just sleep down here…" Sirius trailed off. Lea looked at him.

"Do you seriously want to sleep on the couch tonight Sirius?" she asked him plainly. Sirius wrinkled his nose.

"No." He lamented.

Lea stood up. "I'll go up there if you want, I don't mind barging in like an elephant,"

"By all means be my guest," Sirius gestured with his hand. Lea got to her feet and made her way to the Boy's Staircase. Sirius stretched himself on the couch trying to get more comfortable and closed his eyes.

Lea opened the Seventh Year's Boy's door quietly and peeked her head in. To her surprise she heard talking. Cautiously she opened the door wider and gently eased her way into the room.

James and Lily were stretched out on his bed and they were talking. James was waving his hands around, signalling something and Lea looked at the pair of them for a moment. She felt happy seeing them like this.

"Um, sorry to interrupt, but Remus and Peter have already conked out and Sirius was wondering if they were all sleeping in the Common Room tonight…so…I just wanted to see the situation." She said a little awkwardly.

Lily sat upright and glanced at her wrist. "Whoa! It's almost half past one, sorry!"

Lea waved her hand. "Not my problem, I'm just the messenger,"

"Thanks, poor Remus and Peter. Now they'll have to be woken up," Lily said feeling a little bad.

"Don't worry about, I'm sure they'll understand." Lea reassured her. She turned around and disappeared.

Lily kissed James goodbye and ruffled his hair. "Night James," she said quietly smiling.

"Night Lily," he replied.

Lea prodded Sirius. "Sirius! Sirius!" she whispered. He mumbled something in response.

She tapped him harder.

"Whassa matter?" he said sleepily.

"Your room is free to enter, they were just talking and Lily's gone back to our room," Lea told him.

Sirius ran a hand over his face and got up gingerly from the couch. He just sat there for a moment and blinked a couple of times. Slightly concerned Lea furrowed her eyebrow at this.

"You okay there?" she asked.

He didn't answer. After a beat he said in a weary voice. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired."

For a brief moment Lea heard the exhaustion and a deeper note of something else in his tone. It got to her, and what surprised her was that it did get to her.

Hesitantly, she stretched out a hand and gingerly touched the back of his hand with a finger. "Hey," she said quietly.

He looked up at her from his seat on the couch. "Yeah?"

"Whatever is bugging you, it'll go away. Get some sleep and you'll feel better when you wake up. And even if you don't feel better, you'll feel more level headed to tackle whatever is bugging you," she said softly.

Sirius looked up at her and his grey eyes seemed endless. Lea blinked.

"Thank you," he replied in an equally soft voice. "And thank you for rescuing me tonight." He added again. Lea gave him a small smile.

"Sure, anytime Sirius, I'll see you tomorrow okay?" she said. He nodded and she patted his leg in a companionable sort of way before making her way up to the Girl's Staircase.

A/N: I bet some of you are going bananas at the fact that nothing major has happened between our hero and heroine yet, but this is a slow burn kind of story, where the importance of touches and looks are key to developing the romance. If you look closely, things are developing quietly between them. :) Be good and please review! xoxoxo