Chapter Twenty-Nine;
Severus followed Sirius into Gladrags – snarling at everyone who dared look twice at the fact that Sirius and Severus were holding hands. After walking through the store for a few minutes; Severus jerked his hand away and frowned. "I need to head over to the apothecary."
Sirius turned to him and quirked his eyebrow. "Don't you need a robe?"
"No. I have several." Severus answered.
"Oh, alright, I'll choose one then we can head back to Hogwarts together – when I'm finished I'll come by the apothecary and pi-" Sirius began but was interrupted.
"No! I mean… we'll just split ways now, and meet up before the… er… ball thing." Severus said, quirking his eyebrow as if daring Sirius to challenge him.
Sirius was quiet for a moment, trying to figure out why Severus was acting… suspicious. "Alright. I'll see you later tonight then."
Severus curtly nodded. "Of course," he said as he turned on his heel.
Sirius frowned and gripped Severus' wrist gently, pulling him back a step and placing a kiss to his cheek. Severus turned a bright red before rushing out which made Sirius grin.
Sirius then turned his attention back to the robes, choosing out a scarlet red one for the dance and telling the salesman to send it to his chambers and remove the money from the Black vault. He then quickly walked out of Gladrags and caught sight of Severus, morphing into a dog and slowly following Severus through the crowd. He knew Severus was up to something and he wanted to know what it was. The dogs ears went up when he saw Severus walked straight past the apothecary and inside Spintwitches. Sirius' head tilted to the side in confusion. 'Since when does he like sports?' he thought to himself as he rushed to the door and morphed into a human, quietly pushing the door open and looking around to find a glimpse of Severus, following him through the store and creeping to hide behind a rack where he had a view of Severus but Severus could not see him.
Sirius watched Severus as he looked over all the equipment, a very confused expression on his face. 'You'd think if he wanted something to do with sports he'd ask me…' Sirius thought, huffing a quiet sigh. He watched a salesman walk up to Severus and begin to ask him questions on what he was looking for, Sirius decided he needed a closer standing point so he could hear their conversation. He morphed into a dog – after making sure no one was looking – and crept through the racks, lying down on the ground when he was in hearing range.
"-Kay… so he likes Quidditch… you don't know a team or anything?" the salesman asked in a very impatient tone.
"… No." Severus admitted.
"Well… most of our inventory is team oriented" the salesman said.
"Well… give me something of England's team…"
"Do you want the international England oriented team? Or a team that plays for the UK?" the salesman asked, quirking his eyebrow.
Severus was silent for a minute, finally sighing. "Never mind, if you'll excuse me…" he said as he walked away from the salesman and out of the store.
Sirius stood up and trotted after Severus, making sure to keep a few people behind him as he didn't want Severus to know he was following him. He followed Severus for a good few hours to several different stores, those stores including: Honeydukes – Where he didn't know Sirius' favorite kind of candy; Dominic Maestro's – Where he didn't know the type of music Sirius listened too; and Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment – Where he couldn't find anything he thought would interest Sirius. Sirius, who had found out Severus was shopping for his Christmas gift in the second shop where he had specifically asked what would be good for a Christmas present for a boyfriend – which surprised Sirius as he didn't think Severus would ever admit he was in a relationship to anyone who didn't force it out of him – found it quite funny that Sirius knew so little about him. He began to ponder on everything Severus liked, which he had found all out by speaking to Whisper or simply watching Severus closely. 'He likes Ice Mice – though he would never admit it… he's fond of Gobstones, he likes challenging things, and he loves to read muggle books… hm…' he thought, smiling to himself as he had purchased Severus the perfect gift in Hogsmeade when he went with Remus and felt a bit sorry for Severus as he was having so much trouble with purchasing a gift.
Finally he watched as Severus went into the apothecary and emerged a few minutes later carrying a bag and began to head back to Hogwarts. Sirius trotted behind, still not wanting to reveal he had been following him or Severus would more than likely blow a gasket. When they reached Hogwarts, Sirius separated ways with Severus – without him knowing – and went to his chambers, where he happily found Whisper had laid the box with his robes on the table for him to change into.
After he had put his new robes on and adjusted them magically to be comfortable, he strolled out of his chambers and towards the Great Hall – where he figured the ball would be held. When he entered the hall, he chuckled at the sight. There were about 50 people in the hall – last minute guests of Albus' he figured. 'So much for just staff and four students…' Sirius thought to himself as he walked over towards where Remus stood chatting with Tonks. "'Lo!" He said loudly which startled Remus as he came up from behind him.
"Oh. Hello, Sirius. Where's Severus?" Remus asked.
"Yes, where is Sev?" Tonks asked, smiling, her hair a bright sky blue, eyes a dark blue which matched her dress.
"Ah, he should be here soon enough." Sirius said as he glanced around the room. "So, how are you two tonight?" Sirius asked, hoping to get a casual conversation rolling.
They chatted for an hour about various subjects, eventually other members of the Order coming over and butting in on the conversation. Sirius was brought out of a conversation with Molly about Bill and Fleur having their first child by Remus tapping his shoulder. He turned to look at his friend, raising his eyebrow. "Yes, Moony?" Remus chuckled, tilting his head towards the Great Hall entrance, when Sirius took a glance, he saw Severus just arriving in and already being pulled into a conversation with Albus and another man Sirius didn't know – Sirius was a bit surprised at the fact that Severus wasn't in black, or at least pure black – he had on black dress robes but with a dark green undershirt, and Sirius – well Sirius thought he looked absolutely delectable.
Sirius quickly walked across the hall to where Severus stood with Albus and cut in between them. "Excuse me, Albus, do you mind if I steal Severus away?"
"Now Sirius – we were disc-" Albus began but was interrupted by Sirius.
"I was hoping to dance with him" Sirius said, knowing Albus would never turn down a chance to get Severus to do something other than stand around and talk at a school event.
"Oh! Of course, go ahead, Severus – have fun." Albus said as he turned away and began to chat with someone else.
Sirius nodded and took Severus' hand, pulling him out onto the dance floor where about 20 people were dancing, turning to face him and placing his other hand on Severus' hip to take the lead in the dance. "Excuse me, I never agreed to a dance, Sirius."
"Yes, but this is what we're here for, is it not?" Sirius asked, grinning from ear to ear.
"Yes… well… I lead…" Severus stammered.
"You can attempt to force me to follow – but you'll fail as you know I'm bigger and stronger than you and if you try to take one step to lead I will run my hand slowly up your side thus tickling you." Sirius threatened as he shoved Severus' free hand to rest on his shoulder.
"You… wouldn't…" Severus said as he began to follow in Sirius' step.
"Oh, I would, and you know this – which is why you're following me in the dance." Sirius replied, flashing a smile.
They danced for a few songs in silence, Severus avoiding eye contact by staring at their shoes or Sirius' chin and Sirius staring down at Severus, a goofy grin on his face and a twinkle in his eye – Finally Minerva stepped over. "May I?" She asked, gesturing to take Severus' hand.
"Oh, of course, Minerva. Though I want him back after this song." Sirius said as he handed off Severus to Minerva, who took the lead of the dance much to Severus' dislike – which caused Sirius to chuckle as he walked back over to where Remus stood and this time without Tonks as she was dancing with Harry.
Sirius watched Severus dance, sipping at the goblet of Pumpkin Juice he had picked up. "You know…" Remus began.
"Hmmm?" Sirius said, not taking his eyes off Severus.
"Just the way you look at him" Remus commented.
Sirius quirked his eyebrow up, turning to his friend. "What do you mean, Remy?"
Remus shrugged. "Same way I look at Tonks, I suppose."
Sirius frowned – not understanding what Remus meant before he watched Remus turn his gaze to Tonks, a goofy smile appearing on his face. Sirius turned to look at Severus, turning a light shade of pink. "Shut up, Moony." He groaned in embarrassment.
"I'm only speaking the truth, now I must go steal my wife away from your Harry before he uses the Potter charm on her" Remus said, rolling his eyes and walking onto the dance floor.
Sirius watched Remus as he went out onto the dance floor and politely took Tonks hand from Harry – who went back to talking to Ron and Hermione, not even noticing when Severus walked up to him and stared as he gazed into space. "…Sirius?" Severus asked.
Sirius snapped back into reality, looking at Severus and smiled. "Huh? Oh, hi."
"Hello. Are you ready to go?" Severus asked.
"Oh… sure, if you want. Though it's close to midnight, shouldn't we stay until it hits Christmas? I'm sur-"
"I have something planned…." Severus interrupted.
"Planned? Oh, okay. Let's go." Sirius said, a bit confused but going along with it. He placed his goblet down on the table and began to walk out beside Severus, slipping his hand into Severus'.
Severus held Sirius' hand as they walked down towards the dungeons to Severus' chambers. When they entered, Sirius took a seat on the couch and spread his arms along the back. "So, what did you have planned?"
"Well…" Severus said, trailing off to sway from foot to foot, fiddling with his fingers and staring at the ground to hide behind his hair. Sirius turned to look at him – he was reminded of an embarrassed teenager, he then turned pink and his lips curled into a smirk when he remembered why teens were embarrassed in such a way.
"Well?" Sirius asked.
"I wanted… to… try that – uh, what we did… when I was drunk…" Severus stammered, now beet red as Sirius could see his face just barely.
Sirius bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from grinning widely. "Yeah, okay."
Severus looked up, trying desperately to will away the heat building in his face. "Okay…"
"Right then… so…" Sirius trailed off – remembering what Remus said about letting Severus take the lead.
Sirius watched as Severus slowly walked towards him to sit next to him on the couch, still fiddling with his fingers and staring down at his lap and hands. Sirius stared for a moment before reaching down and slowly unzipping his pants, Severus watching from the corner of his eyes behind his hair. "So… ready?" Sirius asked as he reached into his pants, Severus nodded and Sirius' grin couldn't get wider.
