Chapter Twenty-Nine
Their Happily Ever After

Working for the order wasn't easy. They hadn't expected it to be. But they all had hoped it'd be a bit more rewarding. Yes, sometimes it felt great, doing more than the Ministry was doing to help the cause but mostly they just sat around waiting for things to happen. It was during one of these long, boring periods that Ophelia decided she and Sirius should go on vacation. They hadn't been on one in a while, and this was a girl that was use to getting to go all over the world on a regular basis, so she was getting incredibly stir crazy.

It had been Sirius who decided where they were going to go. He picked Spain. When they were kids, Walburga and Adelaide had them all on a vacation out there together, he and Ophelia had been roughly ten, right before they went off to Hogwarts, Sirius had been forced to spend time with Ophelia, Nikolas and Adrian. It had been hell, they all hated it.

"So," James leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, "Why would you pick Spain?" He was sitting with Sirius drinking Butterbeer and watching Harry while the girls were out shopping.

"To give it a chance to not suck. It's been over ten years, Ophelia and I don't hate each other anymore. Quite the opposite in fact."

"At least on your end." James shrugged

"Shut up." Sirius shook his head and ran a hand through his shaggy black hair. It wasn't particularly long at the moment, just long enough to fall into his eyes. His 'mood cut' as Ophelia liked to call it, was generally a tell tale sign of depression. She called this the Content Cut. "Anyway we're leaving Thing to take care of the house."

"Sirius, your houseelve's name is Treader."

"Yeah, him." Sirius took a drink of butterbeer. "So we won't need you to kill our plants. Those that Ophelia hasn't managed to neglect to oblivion."

"Why do you two even try to keep living things in your home? Either you let them die or you treat them horribly."

"I treat Thing better than I treated my mother's beast of a house elf." Sirius argued.

"That's really not saying much." James pointed out as Harry crawled across the floor. He pulled himself up to stand using his godfather's pant leg and Sirius reached down to pick the boy up, placing him in his lap. He was in love with that little boy, more than he ever could have imagined. Sirius had never really liked kids. But Harry was different. He kissed the boy's head and looked up at James.

"Anyway, we're going to be in Spain when you all leave..." James and Lily would be leaving to a safe house with Harry, they would be staying there for... quite some time. As long as necessary. Sirius wasn't thrilled, because he wouldn't be allowed to know.

"Sirius." James stood and walked over to his desk. "Here." He brought over an envelope, it was blank. "If- if anything happens to Lily or I, the address of our new home will appear. Come... immediately." Sirius took it with a nod. He hoped to never have to find out the address from the piece of paper. "Now, go show your lady a good time." The two best friends hugged and parted ways, Sirius wasn't happy about it, but it was necessary. Voldemort would assume he knew where they were, and would be coming after him, no doubt.


It was time to go to Spain, the trip that served two purposes, shutting Ophelia up and getting them away so Voldemort didn't know where to come looking for him when he realized James and Lily had gone with the baby he was so desperate to get his hands on. Traveling was pretty easy for them, just grabbing their bags, well, Sirius's bag and Ophelia's army of bags, and apperating to the designated place. With simply a pop they appeared across the country, the warm, dry air wafting over them.

"This is perfect." Ophelia grinned and hurried to take a look at the beach house they were renting while they were there. It was owned by a old friend of Sirius's so it wasn't going to cost them much, but it was right on the beach, it really was perfect. "Can we get one of these?"

"A beach house? You're joking right?" They weren't broke but they were going to have to cut back on the spending eventually. He wasn't making any money and while she got a steady income from her family's money, and the stocks that she was given for her eighteenth birthday, it wasn't enough for them to have two homes, not unless one or both of them got actual jobs. Something neither of them was actually willing to do

"No, I'm not joking. Maybe I can get my parents to do it for my birthday." She commented airily as she moved from room to room. Sirius rolled his eyes, he hoped they wouldn't. He knew her parents didn't like him. That they thought he wasn't good enough for her and maybe they were right, maybe he wasn't. But she made him happy, and he was selfish enough to think that was all they needed. He was ripped from his thoughts by Ophelia running into the room and jumping on him.

"Sirius, this is beyond perfect." She informed him after they had both hit the ground in a tangle of limbs. She kissed him and grinned. "Much better than the last time already."

"Already?"

"Well... soon enough." She gave him a wicked smile and kissed him again. Yes, this time was definitely going to be better, and more R rated, than the last.


"Come on!" Ophelia called behind her as she climbed up to the beach, Sirius hurried after her.

"I don't want to go too fast, I'm enjoying the view back here."

"Perv." She stuck her tongue out at him and ran out to the beach, it was still pretty early in the day and there were people every where. Muggles mostly, all laying out on the sand, or out in the water. All of them laughing and yelling or tanning, or sleeping and burning. Ophelia found them a place and put their stuff out, muttering a quick spell to keep anyone from running off with their stuff, she opened her bag and pulled out sunscreen, there was no spell for that.

"That stuff smells awful."

"Only because of your freaky dog nose." Ophelia rubbed the lotion into her arms and shoulders. "And if you don't want to end up as red as your house colors, I suggest you use some too, Black." She held the bottle out to him. He sighed and squirted a bit into his hand, rubbing it over his own skin.

"And you couldn't do this for me?"

"No, no I couldn't." Ophelia stood up and untied the sarong that she had around her waist.

"Why not?"

"Because, Mr. Black, that is highly improper." she smirked and slipped out of her shoes, heading for the water. Sirius quickly finished and ran after her, catching her easily. She let out a screech and a laugh, holding onto him as he spun her around, a few people stared but she didn't care. They were having a good time, nothing could bring her down.

The two of them spent hours out on the beach that day, running and playing, and they built a sandcastle before letting a couple of kids stomp it down, laughing at the looks of joy on the kids faces as they got to stamp down the towers of sand. Ophelia went to lay down on the towels they'd put out earlier, watching as Sirius started building another one.

In another life, this would have been what they did everyday. If they had grown up in a different time, one without the constant threat of war, they could have lived out here, gone to the beach everyday. Just... enjoyed being together instead of always wondering if it would all be over soon. If something could happen to take it all away. But today, today she wasn't going to think about that, she wasn't going to worry about Voldemort, or Lily and James. She wasn't going to think about her brother and his deteriorating mental state or anything that would bring the day down. Today was about her and about Sirius and having fun like a couple of twenty somethings should.

She waited until he'd gotten it built up before standing and running over, falling on top of it with her knees.

"I wasn't done!" He exclaimed, looking at the fallen castle. "it was going to be our dream home." Ophelia got up and looked at the knee prints in the sand and dingy piles of sand.

"Looks about right." She nodded. Sirius let out a growl and ran after her again. This time Ophelia managed to get further, since she was already standing. She ran away from the crowded part of the beach, to a small, less crowded place before Sirius tackled her. She laughed, rolling onto her back. Sirius grinned and kissed her.

"Marry me." He requested, breathlessly.

"Like, now?" She asked.

"No, not now, but... soon. Very very soon." He kissed her neck, leaving her to think about it. But she didn't need to.

"Yes, Yeah, I'll marry you." She responded, He pulled back and looked down at her, waiting to see if she was kidding or not, she wasn't. "I would be more than happy to be the new Mrs. Black."

"You're a hell of a lot better than the last one." He grinned and kissed her.

"You are getting me a ring though, right?"


"Of course dear." In that moment, they thought they had found their happily ever after, they didn't know how wrong they were.

A/N I have no idea how the Godric's Hallow secret house whatever thing worked, I asked a few people, they didn't know either so I'm going with the envelope thing as to how Sirius knew where to go. As for Hagrid... no clue. Anyway, feel free to tell me if you know. It won't change the story, but I'd like to know how the secret house worked. Anyhoo, I plan on finishing out this story and... I don't even know what I'll do after this but I have a few ideas.