Okay guys, this took ages to write, but finally, chapter 34! I'm sure there are errors riddled in here, but I'm sick and tired and I don't much care, so I'll get the proofreading done tomorrow :) I just wanted to get this up for y'all so you have it and I'm sorry again for taking an age and a half to get this done. Hopefully it'll never take this long EVER again.

-Ally

Waking up alone in bed was beginning to become a drag – O'Malley's usual warm body leaving a cold emptiness now that she'd gone back to sleeping alone. Though, every night that she didn't spend in his bed was another night they took a long late night stroll around the castle until she was calm enough to fall asleep without any night terrors.

Rolling over and padding the small space that she could be taking up, he frowned and then sat up to throw his curtains back and greet the sun with a groan. James and Remus were sitting together talking about something or other and Peter was half hanging off his bed still asleep.

Stretching and getting up to get dressed; he reached a hand into his wardrobe and pulled out a t-shirt to wear under his uniform shirt. About to pull it over his head, he heard snickering and looked back over at his friends.

"What?" He raised an eyebrow, arms still in the sleeves of his shirt but not yet pulled over his head.

"Do you realize what you're doing right now?" Remus laughed, Sirius still confused and tired as he pulled at his shirt and realized how tight it felt.

Looking down at it, he realized that it wasn't his – in fact, it was a girl's shirt.

"Don't think this would be a good look for me then?"

He laughed and tossed it back on his bed, trying to remember to give it back to O'Malley at some point when it was convenient. "I'm sure you'd look gorgeous, love." James winked at him, making him roll his eyes as he got the rest of his uniform on and then tightened his tie.

"We have another round of trials tonight, don't we?" Sirius groaned, grabbing his bag and putting the right course books in it for that day.

"Don't remind me." James whinged.

As they headed downstairs, they continued the conversation about just how bad some of the candidates had been so far. They had maybe two – only one for sure – and they still had the other three spots to fill before they had a team worth competing with. Running a hand through his hair, he voiced his hope for some fresh meat tonight for the trial and then noticed a very familiar, pretty swing of hips walking in front of him and he lost his train of thought for a moment.

"Did we forget Peter?" Remus said a minute later, falling behind to run back for their sleeping comrade as Sirius continued being hypnotized by O'Malley's arse.

"She's looking pretty today," his best mate said, though he knew his eyes were drawn to his girlfriend…whom he still hadn't told them about, "She's got a great arse."

"Talking about Evans again, are we? You should just get on that mate, sweep her off her feet."

He watched James smile and ruffle his hair nervously like he always did when he was anxious and hiding something – though unlike most times, Sirius knew this secret. He slugged him in the shoulder and gave him a smirk and a wink before leaning in to whisper.

"I know you're with her, I saw you a few nights back having a keen snog and giggling about the corridors," he laughed, his mate's eyes widening in surprise and then simply shrugged, "finally bagged her, eh?"

"Don't act like I told you, okay? She's still trying to get around to telling the girls and—"

"O'Malley knows too."

James snickered, shaking his head at the ridiculousness of it all. "She's acting like she's about to go into war by telling them she finally gave into me. It's driving me bloody insane."

"I'm pretty sure they'll just take the piss out of her and then be done with it, they all want you together," he said honestly, though his feelings might not mirror those of the girls.

It wasn't that he didn't like Evans; it was more like he felt like he'd be losing some best mate time with James and it upset him, if he was being honest to himself. Since the beginning of school it had always been him and James, taking the school by storm and never seen apart except for the occasions they visited a broom cupboard with a bird. As happy as he was that his best mate finally got the girl he'd been drooling after since he was fifteen, it was also a stab to the heart.

That and he hadn't got O'Malley yet so he was a bit envious.

"Yeah, well, hopefully she gets up the nerve and does it soon or I'll go jump on the staff table and announce our love to the whole Great Hall." He joked, nudging Sirius as they walked into the Great Hall and he shook his head.

"That might be the end of it though, you gotta be careful there." Ruffling his mate's hair, he slid in next to O'Malley and gave her a toothy grin that she returned happily.

"I saw McTavish in the common room this morning," she started, dishing herself some eggs and bacon before handing him the plates, "he said you lot are bloody screwed."

He looked at her seriously for a moment and then nodded. "That's about as good as I'd describe it, yeah. Unless we can suddenly pull members from other houses, I doubt we have a chance in hell to get to the finals this year."

"I'm sure you'll be fine Sirius, you still have James and Tony…if you can find someone who can stop goals then you really don't need anyone else to win." She reached out to squeeze his hand once before turning to Mary who was going on about something Fenwick had done and Sirius quickly stopped listening.

It was another long meal of having her close enough to touch and not doing anything about it – there thighs pressed tightly together under the table and neither moving but that was as far as he got. It was irritating, the constant clamminess of his hands and the fear of rejection…he was bloody Sirius Orion Black, the third! Birds didn't make him nervous, he made birds nervous.

Standing up as the bell rang out through the hall, the seventh year Gryffindor's slowly made their way to another rousing History of Magic class that'd surely have them all falling back to sleep only moments after sitting down. Watching as James went off to sit with Lily and Remus and Peter claimed a desk together, he gave up and went to sit with O'Malley who was offering her open chair.

"Those two are as obvious as the noses on their faces, honestly," she joked, pulling out her books and paper and setting them down, "have you talked to James?"

"Yeah, he said Lily's still working up the courage," he snorted, O'Malley rolling her eyes as she set her inkwell down perhaps a little too hard – dots of ink blotting her skin.

"She's a bloody Gryffindor, for God's sake, she needs to grow a pair and just tell me."

Laughing to himself, he looked up to see that Binns was already drawling on about nonsense that he really didn't give a shit about and turned back to stare at O'Malley. She was quickly scribbling notes as usual, hand moving swiftly across the parchment as her blue eyes read over the things on the board and then intently adding in the words their ghost professor dawdled on about.

He was comfortable just staring at her for the moment though, counting the sprinkling of freckles on her face and noticing the dark bruised like bags beneath her eyes from her insomnia. He had half a mind to force her back into his bed so she could sleep like a normal human being but he knew they'd probably just end up fighting about it – similar to how they'd solved things before they were such close mates. But he didn't want to fight, and she didn't have the energy to fight, so he'd just be the best friend he could and not sleep himself.

Bright blue eyes glanced over at him for a moment and made him jump with a start, realizing that half the class had passed and he'd just been looking at her write notes. Blinking and turning the right way in his chair, he could have sworn her cheeks were burning with a cherry flush and her lips were pulled into a happy smile, but he wasn't sure of it.

He just hoped that was the case.

"Okay you lot!" James yelled later that night, everyone standing out in the cool October air as it whipped up around their cloaks and sent hair flying into faces. "This is the last trial Gryffindor is holding! Four of you will be on the team tomorrow, and the rest won't…it's as simple as that, yeah? Now get your sorry arses up in the air and try not to let me down!"

Sirius shook his head, seriously hoping that James would get a bit better with his pep talks by the time their first match came around and they needed actual pep added into their routine. Getting on his broom, he took the other beater candidates up into the air with him and then began practicing together while he tried to show them good moves to do when it came to aiming the bludgers.

A few weren't bad – a pretty fifth year knew her way around the bat and a sixth year boy wasn't too tragic, so it was definitely down to them. The other three appeared to be incapable of flying much less being a beater good enough to make the team, it was irritating and made his blood boil that they even came but he kept his calm and let them do whatever it was they thought they were doing.

Once everything had come to a halt for the evening and he and James were locking up after showering in the changing rooms, they headed back up to the castle with a keen idea to break out the firewhiskey and try to forget about how bad their chances were at the Cup this year.

"Lewis has to be the other beater mate, Johnson doesn't have the balls." He commented, jumping a few steps at a time with his hands deep in his pockets.

"She did look pretty good from where I was sitting, so if you want her, that's fine. But you realize going after fifth years at your age is a bit wrong, right?"

He pushed out and arm to whack him in the face but missed and pushed him in the shoulder instead. "You're a right tosser, you know that?"

"Yeah, I do." James laughed, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "But you're an idiot."

"Not going to argue there, mate." He shrugged.

"We both know who you fancy…"

"Don't get in on this too, James, I'm in no mood to be ganged up by you and Moony about all this," he threw out his arms and made a big circle as if his fancying O'Malley was a whole word of trouble, "It's fine."

"Liar."

"Stuff it, Romeo."

James looked at him weird, eyebrows knitting together over hazel eyes. "Who the fuck is Romeo?"

"I don't know, I think O'Malley called me that once. But whoever he is, I'm sure he's as much of a prat as you are."

"Wanker." James laughed when they got to the Fat Lady and she gave them a look as per usual. Giving the password, they made their way through the common room without stopping and he only gave one slow look back to see O'Malley laughing and joking with Remus on the sofa as they studied.

Shaking any irritating thoughts he was having, they made their way in and got settled in with some booze as quickly as they could to help figure out just who exactly would make up the Gryffindor quidditch team this year.

After a few hours of throwing names around of people they thought would do the job, but weren't necessarily happy with – he and James were still up in their dorm alone drinking firewhiskey at eleven o'clock and painting their nails with varnish that O'Malley had left lying around.

Sirius was wearing a sparkling blue and James was currently painting his shimmering gold.

"So, there's this girl I fancy—" Sirius started, not sure why he was doing it in the first place but he was tired, slightly pissed, and James was just sitting there.

"Gemma." He filled in the blank.

"And she's a bloody fool."

"Her name is Gemma."

"And I want to take her clothes off."

"Thy soon to be naked lass's name is Gemma."

"So why haven't I?"

"Because she's Gemma."

"And she smells like Peppermint Imps."

James nodded, taking another swig of firewhiskey. "You're right, she does."

"Don't go smelling O'Malley, wanker."

"I was just agreeing mate, Merlin." He scoffed, holding his fingers up in the light and the gold sparkled brightly and he smiled. "I look pretty."

"Maybe if you painted your nails gold and flew really fast around the pitch, you could distract the other seeker and then McTavish would win every time."

James pointed at him, drowsy and drunk. "Brilliant. You're a genius."

"Why am I not shagging O'Malley again?"

"Because you fancy her too much."

Sirius stroked his chin like he was deep in thought, blue fingernails tapping at his skin. "That makes no sense; I should shag her because I fancy her. Right?"

"Come on mate, you know you've never really fancied a girl you've shagged before." James said honestly, finishing his fingers off by painting a golden star on the back of his hand. "Am I right?"

"Well, I fancied Raquel in fifth year, but she was my first," he shrugged, his fingers done in a sloppy mess. O'Malley would not approve, "I guess I've never fancied anyone like O'Malley, no."

"There you go, you want to make the shag special, yeah? With roses and shit."

"I don't think shit is my forte Potter."

"Ew, Sirius….just ew."

Eventually James passed out on the floor and Remus and Peter came back from studying and sort of just looked at them as if this were a normal occurrence. After the other two went to sleep and Sirius was left being lonely and dejected on the floor, he stood slightly wobbly on his feet and walked down to the common room where he knew O'Malley would be.

She was sitting on the couch near the fire, cuddled up with another one of her precious books as he flopped down next to her and buried his face into her knees. He could feel her start with a surprise at him suddenly in her lap but she didn't move away either, so he got comfortable and laid his head against her thighs.

"What, exactly, are you doing?" She asked, tapping him on the head lightly with her book until he groaned and turned to look up at her.

"You're pretty," he smiled, staring up into her blue eyes and counting the flecks of grey in them, "very pretty."

"And you smell like you just took a bath in firewhiskey. God, Sirius, your breath reeks," she said irritated but even the slightly drunken Sirius noted the high flush in her cheeks when he called her pretty.

"Do you love me?" He asked, partially seriously maybe in the back of his head somewhere but it was not a question he meant seriously. He was drunk, everything he said was rubbish.

Except she really was pretty.

"No, I hate you." She teased, flicking the tip of his nose as they stared back at one another. "You're a good mate, Sirius, except when you're drunk and being an idiot and—hold on. Is that nail varnish?"

"I like blue….it's like your eyes."

O'Malley shook her head, bringing one hand down to rake slowly through his hair in a comforting motion that had him nuzzling into her more. "You're a wanker, you know that?"

"Mmhmm, I know. But you love me," he could hear her snort, her body vibrating as she laughed a little and ruffled his hair.

"Of course I do."

"And you want to have my babies."

"All twelve of them."

"And we'll live in a big house in Ireland, near the sea."

"Few dogs, maybe a cat," she teased, her body relaxing and he could hear her voice softening as she seemingly began to doze herself.

"I hate cats." He countered.

"Right, right, just dogs then."

"And lots of shagging."

She laughed softly again, her hand stilling against his forehead. "Once a day."

"At least."

"Mmmm, at least."

"Sounds brilliant," he peeked open an eye to look at her one last time and saw her yawning again as she dropped her book off the side of the sofa.

"You're so dumb," he saw her smile, his own face lighting up as he closed his eyes once more.

"Shhh, you like me."

"Maybe."

O'Malley slid down the sofa slowly, falling parallel with his body as his arms encircled her warmly and pressed her to his chest. Comforted just by the fact that she was so near again, he quickly drifted off into a peaceful slumber simply listening to her breathe.

Pumpkins were coated with frost early in the second week of October, students filing outside for another rousing Care of Magical Creatures class held by Professor Kettleburn. Sirius easily noted the missing part of their group, O'Malley off at her Advanced Arithmancy class generally being more studious than the rest of them.

The Hufflepuffs in front of them were going on about something or other that had happened the night before, sounding as if there was another attack on a muggleborn, but no one was sure. Sirius looked over at his mate's faces and noticed Remus looking a bit peaky having just gotten back from his hospital visit following the full moon.

"All right there, Moony?" Sirius clapped him around the shoulders, pulling him against before mussing his hair in a brotherly manner.

"Just feel a bit tired, is all," Remus yawned, honey brown eyes circled with black bags that made him appear older and more haggard than usual, "I'll be okay."

"Look like shit there Remus," James joked, fixing his tie and running a hand haphazardly through his hair, "not the best of looks."

"Stuff it, tosser, I don't want your stupid opinions right now. You're the one that hit me in the ribs with your bloody antlers." Remus glared over at his mate, James shrugging nonchalantly as if his broken ribs weren't that big of a deal.

"Ex-nay on the antler-ay, we're surrounded by spies," he shifted his head towards McKinnon and MacDonald bringing up the rear, "don't want any of this getting back to your lady, right Potter?"

James looked over at Lily who was talking to the girls and just shrugged. "Maybe it wouldn't be so bad—"

"No James, we're not going to just divulge all our secrets to her because you looooooove her," Remus said before Sirius got the chance, surprising him slightly, "this isn't stuff you can just give away."

"I'm with Moony on this one – just because Lily is the one or whatever…it doesn't mean that you can just tell her we're all doing illegal activities once a month and that Remus is a you-know-what." Sirius added, James looking slightly perturbed.

"So when do I get to tell her?" He asked, look at them and Sirius noted Peter shrugging.

"When you're dead, I guess." Sirius laughed, Peter's face so honest when he said it that it was impossible to not crack up.

"Well that's just peachy," James snickered, their group making it to the edge of the woods for whatever was about to be thrust at them for the class ahead.

Eventually when they were broken up into groups and set to study the creature they were given, Sirius hung back with MacDonald and Dubois as they looked at their little dragon like thing and he scrunched up his nose at it. The thing was ugly, there was no denying that, and he only wondered why the hell he'd kept this class as an elective when he could have easily just have dropped it.

"Are your nails blue?" He heard Dubois ask, his hand flying up to his face as he realized the varnish still hadn't completely chipped away even two weeks later.

He cursed O'Malley for not giving him a way to get it off.

"I think it fits me beautifully," he joked, MacDonald snorting beside him.

"But why? Is this some new trend I'm unaware of?" The black haired girl asked, her brown eyes quizzical as she continued staring at him and he just shrugged.

"I just like the color and I was drunk – I'm pretty sure there's no better explanation than that."

"You like the color?"

He smiled, thinking of everything he loved that was blue. "My favorite."

"Hmmm."

He wasn't sure if he really liked the tone Dubois suddenly took but he didn't want to think about it either – if that girl was up to anything it was just no good. Turning and looking over at MacDonald who still seemed to be giggling about something or other, he nudged her in the shoulder and went back to taking notes.

"What is your problem?" He asked, trying to act extremely busy as soon as Kettleburn walked by.

"Your favorite color is blue," she snorted again, as if this was something funny and he just wasn't getting it.

"Are you on drugs, MacDonald?"

She waved him off, laughing harder. "No, no, I just….God, you should be shagging by now, you're both so fucking stupid."

His eyebrows practically disappeared into his hairline, Dubois looking at her weirdly now too. "What are you talking about?

"Nope, not going to put my foot farther into my mouth, nope nope," she suddenly shut up, zipping at her lips as if locking them shit. "But seriously, she wants you."

Did she mean Dubois? Who was standing next to him blushing redder than a tomato. Or, pray to Merlin, was she talking about O'Malley? Not that he didn't know O'Malley wanted him on some level – she did say they could give snogging another go during the summer if they both wanted, he just hadn't brought it up again.

It wasn't something he wanted to plan or try to do, O'Malley definitely wasn't something that had been planned to begin with so over thinking when and where he should snog her just gave him a headache. And again, the thoughts creeping in on him about her still going through so much shit in her life pulled him back from thinking now would even make sense for them to try and be together.

If it was going to happen, it would – he was done stressing about making it happen.

The day seemed to drag afterwards, classes getting progressively more boring and ridiculously stressful as he moved through them and then sadly ended up in the library at the end of the day looking for a bunch of books for upcoming essays and projects that he wanted to pretend didn't exist.

Moving through the stacks and collecting things slowly, he looked down at one of the desks tucked away against the windows and noticed O'Malley fast asleep on her book with her quill tickling her cheek as she dreamed. He smiled to himself; his usual studious and bossy mate zonked out in the library was a very rare sight indeed.

Setting down his stack, he slowly placed his hands on her shoulders and just rubbed them for a few minutes until she was roused awake and saw her blinking her eyes as she took in her surroundings. She looked back at him with an exhausted grin on her face and sat back into his hands as he continued massaging some of the stress out of them.

"I'm such a mess," she laughed almost sadly, rubbing at her face.

"Come on Gemma," he said kindly, "you're doing fine. A hell of a lot better than most of us would in your situation…you need to learn give yourself a break."

"You're being too nice again, when was the last time we had a really good argument?" She mused, Sirius laughing as his hands stilled.

"Probably around the time you got together with Eddie? Maybe?"

She chuckled, her head resting against his stomach as she leaned back further. "You didn't like him very much, did you?"

"I liked him fine, but you could do better." He teased, not daring to move.

It was sad – Sirius Black, snogging girls left and right, had come to just enjoy the simple things like a girl finding comfort in him. To think that day would ever come just made him shake his head, it was never something he wanted and yet here he was, craving every moment he could get alone with her even if it was just mindless conversation.

He was wrapped around her little finger so tightly that it almost hurt, and he didn't even care.

"And who is better?"

"Professor Dumbledore is single – he seems like a nice chap."

He listened as she fell into hysterics, laughing practically until she cried as she gathered up her materials and then stood and smacked him in the chest. "You're so stupid, you know that?" She smiled, resting her hand against him as she looked up at him.

"I know."

Her fingers fluttered against him for just a second longer as if thinking about tugging on his tie before they dropped away and she picked up her bag. "How long is it until Christmas holidays?"

"Too fucking long," he groaned, grabbing his own things and following her up to Madam Pince's desk. They managed to check out their books with only the minimal amount of glares flickering his way before they made the trek back up to the dorms.

"I'm so done with this year already – I'm starting to hate studying," she said tiredly, climbing the steps next to him as she yawned once again.

"Don't say such things!" He feinted shock and awe, acting as if he were about to pass out just for the small smile that he got out of her. "I don't know what my life would be if I didn't have you walking around telling us how lazy and pathetic we are for not being as amazing as you."

"I think that 'amazing' bit is you, Sirius, I don't usually add that in my lecturing."

"Well, I am pretty amazing."

"Amazingly ridiculous, yes, I'll give you that. When is the first quidditch match this year? I'm in need of a good distraction," they stopped as the stairs moved, Sirius trying to remember their schedule as he scratched the back of his head.

"Second week of November, like every year." He smirked, O'Malley laughing to herself as she rolled her eyes.

"Should have been obvious, shouldn't it? Don't blame me, my brain is already dead for the day, I have nothing left to give."

"I'll let it slide, just this once," she bit her lip as she shook her head, "but it's Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff, so we can keep our tradition going."

She looked at him oddly. "Our tradition of…?"

"Watching the first match together, obviously."

"Oh, right," she snickered, stepping off the steps with him and heading towards the portrait, "that once great tradition broken by your arse being up in the air."

"They were good times, all those years together."

"It was once, Sirius."

"Shhh, let me imagine," he pulled her against him around the shoulders, waving a hand through the air as if trying to show her his insane imagination, "First year, we watched together before you kicked me in the head and left."

"Sounds like me in first year."

"Second year, you pushed me off the stands and then threw a mug of butterbeer at me."

"It was a good match."

"Third year, I believe that was the year you stood on my shoulders the entire match so you could see above McGonagall's hat."

She pinched his side, "No short jokes, mister."

"Fourth year, hmm…wait, was that the year you wore nothing but body paint?" He joked, O'Malley blushing as they made their way over to their friends in the common room. "That was a good year."

"You're the weirdest person I know."

"And then fifth year was the year you got drunk and sang fight songs all night before ending up on a table in your knickers."

"Am I missing something?" Remus asked, head popping up as they fell down together on the couch and their group was just staring at them with the conversation left completely out of context.

"Sirius was just telling me of all the sexual dreams he's had about me, no big deal," O'Malley said before he got any chance to explain, MacDonald giving her a high five as he wondered again about what she'd said earlier in the day.

"Yes, I was, but nothing beats your sex dream where I licked chocolate off your body…that was a doozy of one O'Malley," he poked her nose, freckled cheeks absolutely burning as she elbowed him in the ribs.

"I have never!"

"Probably have," McKinnon teased, her mate throwing a spare chess piece from the table at her as Sirius laughed, "ow!"

"Shut up Mar."

"So you have, have you? I knew you liked the idea of my tongue." He waggled his eyebrows, O'Malley turning back to look at him once again.

"I like the idea of it not working so I don't have to hear you blab along about nonsense, yes. That sounds like a swell idea."

"Come on O'Malley, you want my tongue down your throat."

She leaned over the sofa and faked being ill, the others laughing as he huffed indignantly. "That's gross Sirius."

"You're gross," he shot back, watching her lips hold back another laugh.

"Nice come back there."

"I do my best."

"I'm going to bed I think," she announced suddenly, grabbing her bag again before leaning into him, "I'll see you back down here in a few hours, I'm guessing?"

He nodded, squeezing her knee reassuringly. "I'll be here."

"Don't forget the chocolate."

He heard her giggle as she waved everyone goodnight and turned back with a playful little wink that left him smiling until he saw her again.