Author's Note: To make up for the shitty last chapter I've made this one a bit longer... Hopefully you guys will like it! Thank you for the follows, favourites and reviews, I appreciate them all profusely. 3

TWENTY-ONE

It was dark and Josie drew by the flickering light of a lone candle. Her head hurt from fatigue and focusing so close on the parchment for so long, but her crazed motivation drove her to continue pushing ink over paper. She shunned herself continuously for forgetting possibly important design elements of the time turner. She had seen at least a thousand of them before Malfoy went in and suddenly made her uncomfortably familiar with one. She had walked along a whole wall of them with Neville. Neville. Goddamnit. Josie hoped he got out safely. It would happen twenty years from now, yet somehow Josie still felt like it was happening exactly then, as she sat on her own in the Gryffindor common room.

Eventually she dropped her quill, closing her eyes and finally laying her heavy head in her hands. Her freezing fingers entwined in her hair and she pushed her palms into her eyes as she felt the first tears shedding. It was probably just stress, exhaustion… frustration. But there were things heavier weighing on her heart, and she knew now more than ever that they were the lives of everyone around her.

Unexpectedly, she picked up the soft shuffles of bare feet padding over carpet. She lifted her head to see Sirius Black looking at her from the stair landing, his wand lifted with blinding light… at least, for this hour of night, Josie surmised. He was wearing what Josephine presumed were his pajamas – a black shirt with a faded Batman logo and thin sweatpants.

"Stylish." Josephine commented. It came out soft, strained and uneven, and she soon realized she had lost her voice.

"Check yourself, Squeaky." He shot back. She looked down and realized she also sported pajamas – a Little Mermaid top and a pair of bright pink shorts. Not only that, but to keep her legs warm she had her knee-high woolly socks on too. She sighed and collapsed back in her chair.

"What are you doing up this late anyway?" He continued calmly. Josephine shrugged. Her eyes felt dry and she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I could ask you the same thing," She couldn't resist replying in the end.

When she opened her eyes again, Sirius had moved across the room and was now standing next to her, looking at her drawings. Her heart struck against her ribs for a second, as she was shocked into action. She tensed and threw her arms over her work, gathering it together and flipping it over so it faced the wood of the table. She didn't look back at Sirius to catch his reaction, but she almost didn't need to. His surprise and, indeed, curiosity, emanated from him like a fourth year's unchecked body odor. Josie released the papers with the forceful unclasp of her hands. She breathed in sweet, painfully chilly air breezing in from the forgotten open window and sighed deeply.

"I'm sorry," She said, standing to lean over and close the window before looking back at him. He was an arms-length away from her, hair messed up and obscuring his vision. Her eye level was at his collarbone and she felt intimidated as she tilted her head up to observe him properly. His eyes were not quite awake, still half closed, and, strangely, he was smiling. Unfortunately, he stayed annoyingly silent.

"Oh, stop looking so bloody smug." She blew out the candle and attempted to walk past Sirius. His arm reached out and stopped her from continuing, a soft nudge with his forearm across her waist and his hand on her opposite hip. It only lasted a second but the warm physical contact sent goose bumps running up and down Josephine's own arms.

"What were you drawing?" He asked conversationally, with only the glowing tip of his wand separating them. His eyebrows were raised with expectation. Josephine sighed.

"Just some stuff," she said lamely. "Secret stuff."

"Mm, secret stuff," he nodded knowingly. He looked at her through the corner of his evil eye. "My favourite kind," he said deviously before snatching the papers, and, with amazing agility, lunging over and behind the couch while Josephine remained standing where she was, mouth open and chest empty of air.

"What the f-" her squeaking voice exclaimed. She rushed over to the couch and saw Sirius already sitting on the floor with the papers strewn out before him. She didn't know what she was expecting.

Eventually, after a moment of stunned silence, she resolved that she couldn't do anything to reverse anything, and sat on the couch behind Sirius, looking over his shoulder as he flipped through different technical drawings. With an adept flick of her wand, she started a new fire in the grate and sat back as she waited for a response.

"What is it?" he finally asked. Josephine smiled.

"A time-travelling device," she answered, plain and simple. After all the lies, it felt good to tell the truth for once.

"That's amazing," Sirius said, sounding genuinely awestruck. He cleared his throat. "I mean, it's all right." Josephine smiled. He turned around, and this time Josie looked down at him. "Does it work?"

"Don't know. I'm pulling my hair out just getting all the components listed and fitting in the same area," She said. Abruptly, Sirius looked at his watch.

"Did you know," He said after adopting an expression that indicated that he was working something out, "that we've been awake for almost fifty hours straight now?" They were quiet for a few seconds as Josie's brain, numbed with weariness, let that sink in.

"Shit… That's a long time," Josephine replied ineloquently. "Why aren't we asleep?" Sirius laughed softly.

"I don't know."

But they didn't go to sleep. Only ten minutes later Josephine found herself looking into Sirius's face from a mere thirty centimetres away. They both had lost the strength to stay sat up and had collapsed so that Sirius lay on his back looking up at Josie, who lay facing downwards, her body relaxed completely as only the top part of her face peeked over the edge of the couch cushions.

"What's your biggest fear?" Josie asked randomly, as was the norm at the early, early hours of morning. Sirius 'um'ed for a while and as he focused toward the ceiling, Josephine got a good look at his face. There was the hint of teenage stubble creeping up his jawline, but it was not unflattering, and his dark eyebrows casted shadows over his cheeks.

"Living up to my family name," he said to her. Their eyes met and she sent sympathy in telepathic waves, as it was getting harder and harder to talk in her drained state. She wouldn't know what to say anyway. "What about you?" He asked, apparently completely comfortable.

"Oblivion," she replied without hesitation, trying to overcome her waning voice. "Complete oblivion. I once had this nightmare where there was nothing around me at all, it was just black and I was endlessly floating, senselessly. I couldn't smell anything, see anything, feel, taste, hear… nothing. Just, utter nothingness." She saw Sirius's eyebrows draw together as she fell quiet.

"Fuck," he said appreciatively. Josephine let out a discordant laugh. "Hey, you know what we should do tomorrow?" He suddenly asked, the use of the word "we" causing Josephine a small heart spasm. She shook her head in a small movement.

"…me neither, I've just forgotten." Josephine couldn't help laughing again as Sirius broke into a lion's yawn.

"Let's just sleep, you'll remember in the morning." She mumbled.

"It is morning."

"Don't be cheeky."