Love is a sweet tyranny, because the lover endureth his torments willingly. - Proverb

Dangerous Liaisons

Sirius emerged from the bathroom, finding James sitting glumly on his bed, still dressed in his dress robes.

'No luck, then?' he asked, sitting next to James and clapping him on the back.

He felt a little bad for being so happy when James obviously did not have the best night.

James lay back, frustrated.

'She's mad. Honestly… my hand was respectfully on her lower back. It wasn't my fault that someone knocked past us and it went a bit lower,' James said self-righteously.

'So you groped her arse, then?' Sirius said knowingly.

James had no idea. Groping Lily Evans' backside is just something you do not do… he shuddered to think what would happen to him if he tried that on Helen and decided that he would never risk it.

'It wasn't my fault!' James exclaimed indignantly.

'Sure… so that was it? What happened for the rest of it?' Sirius asked.

'Oh, I don't know. We danced a bit… hardly talked… she was in a strop after Helen left with you…' James' eyes widened and he sat up suddenly 'Oh my God! You went with Helen! What happened?' he exclaimed, shaking Sirius' shoulder.

Sirius gave a small smile and got up and went to his own bed.

'Well?' James asked impatiently.

'I don't kiss and tell,' Sirius said, lying back in bed, happy that he would be able to, finally, sleep well tonight.

James looked at Sirius incredulously.

'Don't pull that bullshit on me… you don't kiss and tell? You're the worst…'

Sirius sighed and sat up.

'Okay, fine… we're going out,' he admitted.

James blinked.

'What?' he asked, not sure he heard correctly.

'What do you mean- what? We're together now,' Sirius said simply.

James stared at Sirius in disbelief.

'How?' he asked stupidly.

Sirius rolled his eyes.

'How? What do you mean, how?'

He was beginning to feel a little frustrated. He didn't feel like divulging everything that had just happened with Helen...

'I mean, how the hell did you manage to pull that off? You were only in the hospital wing last week because she tried to kill you…' James trailed, still not understanding the situation.

'Apparently it must be her way of expressing love,' Sirius shrugged.

His eyes widened at this statement and he suddenly wondered if this was true. He started to feel a little scared...

James stared at Sirius.

'What? What's wrong?' Sirius sighed impatiently.

'Do you know…?' James said slowly, 'that means you won the bet!'

'What bet?' Sirius asked, looking at James strangely.

Had Lily Evans addled with his friends' mind?

'The bet! The one we made in first year… come on, you remember!' James said excitedly.

Sirius eyes widened as he remembered. He laughed at the irony of it. Of course he had never expected to win it… which is probably why he had forgotten all about it.

'Told you… ladies' man,' Sirius said smugly, lying back in bed luxuriously.

His life just seemed to be getting better and better today.

James stared at Sirius, bemused, and shook his head. Suddenly, a thought occured to him.

'You do know that you said that Peter could have Helen for 7th year…' he said knowingly, laughing as he saw Sirius' eyes widen at this news.

At that moment, Peter himself bounded into the dormitory happily. He had stolen a goodnight kiss from his date, Bernice Small.

Sirius sat up and looked at Peter rather coldly.

'Er…' Peter said, not quite sure what he had done wrong. It was always hard to tell with Sirius.

James laughed at the two of them.

'Wormtail- I am just telling you that if you ever... EVER touch Asteria, you will be in BIG trouble. Understood?' Sirius said sternly.

Peter's face blanched at this threat

'Wha…what?' he stammered.

James shook his head.

'Sirius is going out with Helen now, and he is…er… a little anxious that you won't try and fulfil your end of the bet we made in first year,' he explained.

Peter looked confused.

'Forget it…er... just never try hitting on Helen, that's all… How was your night?' James asked, changing the subject.

It annoyed James that he had planned the most for tonight and it had turned into a disaster for him, with Lily more than ever set in her belief that he was an 'arrogant prat', as she had called him, whereas Sirius had done absolutely nothing and managed to finally get Helen; even Peter got a goodnight kiss, which was more than James could boast with the stinging slap which Lily gave him in bidding him goodnight.

Helen woke up early the next day. She opened her eyes to see it was still dark outside.

She smiled to herself and bit her lip to prevent herself from laughing and waking everyone up. It seemed so silly…

She was with Sirius?

He liked her?

'Shut up, Helen. It was just a dream,' she said to herself, sternly- the slowly-eroding part of her self which still retained some common sense.

'But it wasn't a dream… it was real…. Haha! He kissed me! Many times!' another nagging voice in her head said coyly.

Helen sat up, feeling very flustered. She was not going to develop a silly schoolgirl crush on Sirius. That was just what all his other girlfriends did. Thinking about this, she felt her stomach squirming with nervousness. She would have to see him today. What would she say? Would it be awkward?

Helen read and reread the same line at the empty Gryffindor breakfast table. Try as she might, her mind really was not on potions. She was jumpy; always looking at the entrance to the great hall to see if Sirius was coming. She did not have to wait too long. She felt him sit next to her whilst she was staring determinedly at her book. Nonetheless, she could not suppress the smile playing on her lips.

'Good morning to you too,' said Sirius, amused, noticing her smile.

Helen shut her book and turned to face him, shocking Sirius, as always, as her eyes locked with his.

'Long time no see,' Helen grinned.

'It's just as you said; you're addictive and now I'm hooked. If we ever break up… which, considering our tempers is likely to happen quite often…, I will have severe withdrawal symptoms,' Sirius said, leaning forward and taking a few pieces of toast.

Helen stared at him with a bemused expression before turning back to her porridge and biting her lip, smiling.

'Are you doing anything today?' Sirius asked, buttering his toast.

'Not particularly,' Helen said, feeling her heart beating in her throat.

'Would you like to…'

'Helen Asteria. Why am I hearing rumours all of a sudden that you're going out with that?' Lily interrupted, appearing suddenly in a very bad mood.

Helen had avoided this confrontation with Lily last night by pretending that she was already asleep. After all, she didn't really want to divulge all the details as it was, let along have Marina and Mary knowing them all too.

Helen and Sirius turned to Lily, surprised.

'Why hello, Evans. Charmed to see you too,' Sirius said sarcastically.

Helen's lip twitched.

'Shut up, Black,' Lily snapped, before turning to Helen. 'Is it true?' she demanded, her face wearing an expression of pure horror.

'Yes,' Helen replied simply.

Lily looked at Helen strangely.

'Have you drugged her, Black?' she asked suddenly, glaring at Sirius.

Helen rolled her eyes. Lily had said the same thing yesterday.

'What?' Sirius yelped.

'What have you done? Love potion? The normal Helen would never be this ridiculous to go… why are you laughing, Helen? What did you do to her, Black?' Lily demanded.

'Nothing! I can't believe it either- trust me,' Sirius added, laughing.

Lily stared at the two of them incredulously before turning on her heel and sitting on the other end of the table, stabbing violently into a piece of toast.

'Will she be okay?' Sirius asked, looking at Lily warily.

'Yeah… she just needs to blow off some steam. It seems that she was less than impressed with James yesterday,' Helen sighed.

'I know. That boy has no idea how to work on girls,' said Sirius sadly, shaking his head.

Helen shot him a reproving glance.

'I know. I've often thought I should help him out… give him lessons,' Helen said, shrugging.

Sirius stared at Helen.

'Do you like James?' he asked in a strangled voice.

Helen rolled her eyes.

'Honestly, you are going to be a problem. You have jealousy issues, you know that? No, I do not fancy James. I was joking… feebly,' she said, exasperated, and pushing her empty bowl away from her. She then turned to Sirius.

'Are you nearly done?' she asked.

Sirius pushed his plate away quickly.

'Uh-huh,' he said, his mouth full of food.

Helen stared at him a moment as he covered his mouth and tried to chew it quickly, a smile playing upon her lips.

'I need to visit Hagrid; I promised I'd help him with his Snaglers. Want to come?' Helen asked hopefully.

'Snaglers?' Sirius asked, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

'Fine,' Helen said, standing up. 'I'll see you round then,' she said, sweeping out of the Great Hall.

Sirius sighed.

'Okay, fine. I'll help with the darned Snaglers,' he called, running after her.

'Oh, good… you're here. Good Christmas?' Hagrid asked opening the door of his cabin for Helen.

'Yes, thank you. Sirius has come to help too!' Helen said brightly.

Sirius, however, did not look as enthusiastic about his helping as Helen made him out to be.

Hagrid surveyed the two of them, confused.

'I never knew yeh had a detention,' he said slowly, scratching his head.

Sirius fought to keep a straight face.

'It's not,' Helen sighed.

'Okay…' Hagrid said, not understanding what was going on. 'Are yer feelin' okay?' he asked, looking at Helen strangely.

Helen threw up her arms in exasperation and left the cabin. She was really very tired of explaining herself.

Hagrid stared after her, confused, before turning to Sirius for an explanation.

'Yeah… we're going out now,' Sirius said, shrugging, before going out after Helen who was bending over a crate of Snaglers, muttering under her breath in Greek.

Hagrid blinked at this news and stared after the two of them, not knowing what to think.

'You'll be the death of me,' Sirius muttered moodily as he flopped, exhausted, into an armchair in the Gryffindor common room. 'Did you really have to go to those stupid creatures? Honestly! Who would want to sustain such beasts?'

'Their venom is useful,' Helen said with infinite patience, pouring essence of murtlap into a bowl and walking towards Sirius.

'What's that?' Sirius said, sitting up suddenly and looking warily at the yellow liquid as Helen dipped a cloth in it.

'It'll help with the cuts. Just shut up and take it like a man,' Helen said shortly, grabbing his arm and rolling up the sleave to reveal many cuts.

'Ouch… stop. They'll heal by themselves,' Sirius said, trying to wrench his arm away from Helen.

Helen glared at him and Sirius felt himself give in, reluctantly, watching Helen purse her lips reprovingly and dabbing his cuts with the cloth. Surprisingly, however, he felt the stinging from the cuts begin to cease.

He began to turn his attention to Helen who was very gentle with each cut, only leaving it when she was satisfied that it was healed.

Helen cleared her throat.

'Give me your other arm,' she said, moving to the other side, but not meeting his eyes.

Sirius complied silently.

'Do you have any other cuts?' she asked after having finished that arm.

Sirius shook his head. Helen made to get up, but Sirius reached out and stopped her. She looked into his eyes questioningly.

'Your turn,' he said, getting up and pushing her into the armchair.

Helen smiled.

'It's okay, I can do it myself,' Helen said.

'No. You did mine, I'll do yours,' Sirius said firmly, taking up a clean cloth. Helen sighed, but rolled up her sleaves all the same to reveal far deeper cuts than Sirius had.

'Blimey, Helen! What did you do with those Snaglers?' Sirius asked, startled.

Helen shrugged.

'That one will have to be healed with a wand,' Helen said, pointing to a particularly deep gash.

Sirius stared at it with wide eyes. Helen smiled.

'Well, if that's how you're going to act, I think I'll just do this myself,' Helen said, going to take the cloth from his hands.

Sirius, however, snapped back to reality and began to dab tenderly at Helen's gashes, still shooting furtive glances at the large gash.

'Could you do me a favour and get that book over there?' Helen asked, pointing to the desk once all the other cuts were mended.

Sirius complied and handed it to Helen who winced as she took the book with her injured arm.

'Which page?' Sirius asked, noticing her wince and taking the book back from her.

'Er… 498, I think,' Helen said, looking over his shoulder as he flipped to the page.

'Yes… oh, my wand… can I borrow yours?' Helen asked, realising that she didn't have her wand on her and reproaching herself, silently, for such a foolish mistake.

'Why don't you let me heal the wound?' Sirius asked, looking at the instructions and thinking they were quite straight-forward.

'Er…' Helen said, uncertainly. She knew Sirius was good at magic and all but… to trust him with wound healing?

'Here,' Sirius said, setting the book down and taking her arm. Before Helen could stop him, he muttered incantations, pointing his wand at the gash.

Suddenly, blood began to pour out of the wound. Helen clutched at her arm which began to feel numb.

'What did you do?' she shrieked.

Sirius' face became pale.

'I… Let's go to Madam Pomfrey,' he said, grabbing her other arm and running.

'I knew this was a bad idea. You've never even tried it before,' Helen complained on the way to the hospital wing.

'I'm sorry,' Sirius said, feeling very guilty.

'Well, you should be! I'm never asking you to heal anything ever again…. Look at this! I'm leaving a trail of blood! Let's hope there are no thestrals around! They'll be after me,' Helen babbled, trying to distract herself from the sight of her bluing arm.

'MADAM POMFREY!' Sirius shouted, pushing Helen towards the healer.

'What happened?' Madam Pomfrey asked in horror as she saw the trail of blood on the usually impeccably white hospital wing floor.

'He,' Helen said with a nod to Sirius, 'thought he would try and heal one of my cuts with magic.'

Madam Pomfrey glared at Sirius before turning to Helen who had left a considerable patch of blood on the bed sheets which she was sitting on and actually properly healing the wound now with her wand. She cleaned Helen's arm before letting Helen go.

'I'm really sorry,' Sirius said sheepishly as they walked back to the common room.

Helen shrugged.

'I just know not to trust you with wound healing from now on… unless there was something else in it? Were you trying to kill me?' Helen asked, turning to him with an eyebrow raised accusingly.

Sirius rolled his eyes and put his arm around her, hugging her to him.

At that moment, they heard a vehement shout and, upon walking further down the corridor, they saw Filch looking absolutely livid with his eyes popping out of his sallow skin.

'WHAT IS THIS? WHO LEFT THIS TRAIL? WHO IS GOING TO CLEAN THIS UP?' he shouted at McGonagall.

McGonagall rolled her eyes and sighed as she flicked her wand lazily, cleaning the blood trail instantly.

Helen and Sirius exchanged a grin at this.

'Damn,' said Sirius, once they were out of earshot. 'It would have been worth your blood if Filch had to spend the whole night cleaning it.'

Helen shot him a reproving look, but Sirius grinned and pulled her into a kiss before she could say anything.

Helen forgot about complaining... This was much better, really.

Lily wrenched open Helen's hangings and found Helen reading a book with a smile on her face.

'What are you doing?' Lily asked.

'Reading,' Helen said simply, though she knew that Lily meant something else...

Lily sighed and sat on Helen's bed.

'What are you doing with Black? You hate him! What are you playing at?' Lily asked, trying to talk some sense into Helen.

'I don't hate him… I haven't hated him for a while now,' Helen said, blushing a little.

Lily looked at Helen incredulously.

'What do you mean? Only last week you sent him to the hospital wing! Are you just using him as one of your 'distractions?'' Lily frowned.

'No,' Helen said heatedly.

'Well? Why are you doing this to yourself? Don't you know what happens to his girlfriends? He's going to try and sleep with you, and what are you going to do? Give in? And if you don't… then he'll just dump you because that's all he wants in a girl,' Lily said knowingly.

Helen closed her book and sighed.

'He really isn't like that, Lily…' she said, knowing that nothing she said would convince Lily.

'No? Well you said his friend wasn't like that either and, forgive me, but someone who tries to feel me up is not my definition of a gentleman,' Lily snapped.

Helen smiled apologetically.

'Don't you sit there smiling at me, and don't you dare come crying to me when it ends badly with Black, because I have warned you,' Lily said heatedly, getting off Helen's bed in a huff.

She was still in a very bad mood. She couldn't believe that she wasted her first Yule Ball on James Potter.

'We need to talk, mate,' James said, wrenching open Sirius' hangings.

Sirius looked up and shut his quidditch book, waiting.

'Okay. So, you're like a brother to me and all, and I know you're my best mate…but Helen is like a sister to me,' James said matter-of-factly.

He had to have this talk with Sirius.

Sirius raised an eyebrow and laughed.

'Am I getting 'the talk' then?' he asked sarcastically.

'No, I'm being serious!' James said.

'Yeah- so am I! Did you forget my name?' Sirius laughed.

James sighed. Sirius made use of the Sirius/serious pun way too often- it was starting to bug him.

'Just stop for a second and listen. You can't treat Helen like your other girlfriends. You have to treat her with more respect than that… and you can't sleep with her either.' James added as an afterthought.

Sirius looked at James incredulously.

'I'm sorry… are you laying down rules for Helen and I?' he asked in disbelief.

'Yes. I am,' James said, glad that Sirius had understood him so well, so quickly.

Sirius stared at James before bursting into laughter.

'Quit laughing! I'm not joking here- you can't pull that stuff on her!' James said exasperatedly.

'James,' Sirius interrupted seriously, 'First of all, I value my life way too much than to treat Helen like those other girls. I haven't forgotten what happened to me last week and, trust me, I don't think Madam Pomfrey's that great-looking to want to spend too much time with her... Secondly, you're forgetting that I actually like Helen whereas I didn't care two knuts about the others… and thirdly…' Sirius started laughing, 'what do you mean I can't sleep with her?' he asked indignantly.

'You can sleep with her if you marry her,' James conceded.

Sirius looked at James incredulously.

'Okay, fine… when you finish school,' James sighed, as though he was being very generous.

'Does she know that you're making these rules?' Sirius asked, knowing that Helen would be annoyed, as she always was when James tried to meddle with her affairs.

'No…'

'And what if she wants to?' Sirius challenged.

'She won't,' James said stoutly.

'And since when were you the authority, Mr I-groped-Lily-Evans'-arse-last-night?' Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows.

James pursed his lips.

'I rest my case,' Sirius said, shaking his head and laughing as James threw up his hands exasperatedly and left the dormitory.

Well... Haven't Helen and Sirius been getting along charmingly well? (minus a few injuries, here and there... it seems that they get injured even when they like each other...)

So, next chapter:

dun dun dun...

REMUS IS BACK

... and he has troubles with Black

'Of all girls you could have taken to the Yule Ball, you took the one I asked.'

So. If you are wanting to find out what happens... you had better review this chapter!

Lots of love, Anya