A/N: Thanks everyone. Full disclosure, I finished the first draft of the final chapters this week, so hopefully my updates will continue to be frequent. Hope you enjoy this one!

Chapter Thirty-Five: Maybe he'd be happy

"And so after you say the spell…" Regulus prompted, shielding the Transfiguration textbook from my eyes.

"You…" I thought about what James had said about switching spells. Something about seeing the way the bird's beak melted into the shape of a rabbit's nose. And then you had to… "Um…you," I sighed heavily. "Say abracadabra and the beak turns to a snout."

Regulus knitted his eyebrows together and started to laugh.

"Merlin, you are really dim," he said as he leaned against the Thestral fence and laughed loudly. I ignored the slight because I was momentarily transfixed by his handsome expression. But even his brilliant smile wasn't distraction enough when I noticed the collar on his coat was moving, and jumped.

"What?" he asked still laughing.

"I think a Thestral got you," I said pointing to where the corner of his collar was now becoming ragged. He spun around, glared at thin air, and pulled his collar away from something.

"So annoying not being able to see the stupid things," he muttered, examining the fraying ends of the material. I shrugged in response, pulling the Transfiguration book from him and trying to read the passage for the seven hundredth time.

"I'm glad I can't see them, personally," I said, following the sentence with my finger. "Bloody hell, this literally makes less sense than Filch's love for cats. Can't you explain it to me?" I begged, widening my eyes at him and smiling convincingly.

He just laughed and flicked the end of my nose. "You look insane bug-eyes. And I can't explain it to you…you just know it or you don't." He pulled the book away from me and leaned over to kiss the corner of my mouth. "Ignorance is bliss sometimes," he whispered.

I shuddered a little as his lips traced my neck before I pushed him away. "I told you that we needed to spend more time studying so we don't fail our OWLs. Ignorance is not bliss if I fail and don't get to come back next year."

He groaned and fell on to his back, staring at the ceiling. "Effie, we've been studying for more than an hour. We'll have to go in soon and it'll all be for nothing."

"Spending time with me means that little to you, huh?" I said in the saddest voice I could muster. I wanted to burst in to laughter when he sat up with a jolt looking anxious.

"No…I…" he narrowed his eyes at my twitching lips and pounced at me so I was lying on my back now, with him balanced carefully over me. I blushed as his finger traced over my face and eyes and came to rest on my lips. He looked confused but bright-eyed and I felt my heart stop as he leaned down to kiss me, my books strewn around nearby, completely forgotten.

"You know," I said, sitting up with straw tangled in my hair. "If we could just spend time together in public…maybe then we wouldn't have to fit a whole relationship in to two hours a night."

Regulus laughed as he dusted off his robes, inspecting the material closely.

"Yeah, like that's an option."

When I didn't answer, he looked up and sighed.

"Come on Effie – I'm sure I've told you this before. I'm protecting you – if my mates found out, they'd never leave you alone."

"I could handle them," I shrugged. "It would be worth it, wouldn't it? Not having to hide?"

He looked thoughtful for a moment and I didn't press him. I knew it was difficult for him – but we would work it out eventually.

"What about your mates?" he finally said. "McKinnon, Fenwick and Meadowes already hate me. I shudder to think what my brother would do if he found out about us."

"Maybe he'd be happy. I'm his friend…you're his brother."

Regulus laughed at me again. "Honestly, do you even hear yourself sometimes?"

I chuckled and made a face at him and before I could form any semblance of a clever retort, he was kissing me again, pushing me gently back down into the straw.

I don't know how long we spent kissing after that, I only came to my senses when we heard footsteps and a husky, familiar voice calling my name. Regulus sat up abruptly, pulling me up with him looking shocked and torn. No one had come down there before and now Sirius, quite possibly the last person who should be allowed to find out about us, was suddenly there? I could see the frantic mixture of adrenaline, guilt and anxiety on Regulus' face and although half of me wanted to scream for him to stay, I just nodded and whispered in a low voice.

"Hurry, he sounds close."

Regulus gave me a look of thankfulness and apology before he got to his feet, climbed over the Thestral fence and disappeared behind the wall out of sight. At almost exactly the same moment, Sirius appeared near the front gate. He was whistling nonchalantly and broke in to a grin when he saw me sitting there with straw in my hair flipping through my Magical Creatures textbook.

"Effie!" he called, his voice slightly hoarse.

"Are you ill?" I couldn't help but blurt out as he came over to me and leaned against the fence to look down at me. It was strange that I hadn't noticed. But I suppose that I didn't watch him like I used to – now that he was my friend and I was with Regulus.

Sirius nodded, massaging his throat.

"All my doom and gloom seems to have caught up with me," he croaked as he reached a hand down to pull me up from the ground. When I was on my feet, I was a little too close to him, so I backed away as carefully as I could. Of course, I accidentally tripped over one of my books and fell against the fence a bit painfully. Sirius just laughed and pulled a piece of straw from my hair with a shake of his head.

"You're a mess," he chuckled. The tenor of his voice was remarkably soothing with the roughness and I found that despite my nervousness over him almost finding me with Regulus, I could relax in his presence. Since I could still see a sliver of Regulus' coat between the beams, I maneuvered so that Sirius had his back to the pen and then smiled at him expectantly.

"What are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "Well, I wanted to ask you something and when I couldn't find you in the Library, Marlene said you might be here."

I felt my stomach swoop with a mixture of annoyance and dread. I knew Marlene would never explicitly say that I was spending time with his brother, but it bothered me that she would risk telling him my location when she knew what Sirius could potentially walk in on. I hoped that she hadn't done it on purpose.

"Yeah, I had a few notes on Thestrals to write and I thought being in their presence might help," I shrugged, twirling a piece of my hair around my finger and discovering more straw sticking out of it. Sirius smiled and reached over to help yank it from my hair, accidentally pulling out a few strands with it.

"Oh shit! Sorry!" he said, wincing when I yelped. "Merlin, I'm an idiot."

I shrugged as my eyes watered, pretending there was something in my eye. "No, it doesn't hurt."

He sighed, closed his eyes and shook his head. "Can you see them?" he asked, tilting his head to the seemingly empty pen, his voice cracking slightly.

I shook my head. "No, but it's still helpful for my essay. Sometimes they put straw in my hair, the cheeky buggers."

Sirius turned to stare into the pen, laughing as he squinted at the nothingness. I felt alarm as I saw Regulus shift his coat more out of sight. After a moment Sirius nodded. "Yeah I can't see them either. Can't say I'm too disappointed about it though."

"That's what I said!" I agreed, nodding enthusiastically before I felt a stab of guilt. Regulus probably hated that.

Sirius smiled. "Anyway, my question…"

"Ah, yes. The answer is yes, Bertram Aubrey is still a git."

"Oh, I knew that already!" Sirius laughed. "Have you noticed he's grown his hair out? It's to cover the stumps on the antlers I gave him last month."

"I thought he looked a bit lumpy," I agreed, distractedly looking over his shoulder to see Regulus giving his brother a withering look and yawning exaggeratedly at me.

"Your question, then?" I said hurriedly, shooting Regulus a grimace.

"Right…" Sirius leaned against the fence, once again massaging his throat. His voice came out slightly smoother as he said, "So Remus' birthday was this week."

I nodded. "I heard."

"And James' is at the end of March. Normally we'd have two parties, but this year a bunch of people gave us grief about studying for exams, so we decided to have a joint party so they couldn't blame us for their hangovers." Sirius grinned and rolled his eyes. "Bunch of wets."

I laughed. "You are nothing if not considerate."

"So, it'll be a massive blow-out. And…well, James and Remus – they really want you to be there," Sirius said, swallowing and running a hand through his hair as he looked at a spot on my shoulder. Subtly I tried to brush off whatever dirt he was looking at before he cleared his throat and went on. "I know I don't have to invite you – it's your common room too, so of course you can come, but…"

He brushed his hand through his hair once more, biting his tongue.

"Well James and Remus, they really like you and want you to come." His eyes finally flickered up from my jumper to meet mine.

I shrugged. "Er…really?"

"Of course!"

"Well, I just got the impression that James wouldn't care either way and Remus is too polite to say no to anyone," I said casually. I was making light of things of course. Remus was the one who probably didn't care and I was almost sure James would prefer if I weren't there. Despite his apologies for snapping at me – he hadn't been much more than cold towards me all week.

"No!" Sirius protested. "They really want you there. And…well, I know, considering everything that's happened, Emmeline probably won't come. But Marlene is, and Wendy and Flo will be there of course. So…I know, you're sort of on her side, but d'you reckon you could cut me a break like the others and come too? For James and Remus of course," Sirius said, smiling charmingly, a slightly wild look in his eyes.

I smiled back and nodded. "I'm not taking sides! But sure. I'll be there."

The minute the words flew from my mouth however, I glanced at where Regulus was hiding. Attending the party might mean cutting our time together the next day and I wasn't sure he'd be pleased about that. He hadn't emerged but I was positive he was still listening.

"Brilliant!" Sirius said cheerfully. "Starts at eight. I know you usually spend time revising in the evenings, but maybe you could leave the library early for once? You know, stop being a swot for like two minutes." He winked at me playfully.

"I am the worst swot I know. Real swots actually learn things," I shrugged. "But yeah, I'll come after the Library closes."

Sirius sighed laboriously and rolled his eyes. "Fine. Nine thirty on the dot then."

I laughed. "If you insist."

"I really do," he said, his hand sweeping up to my hair once more. Goodness! How much straw was there? He tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear before he dropped his hand and nodded. "Well, shall I walk you up then?"

Without waiting for an answer, he dipped down to the ground and picked up my stack of books and bag, slinging it over his shoulder and balancing the heavy texts up high. With a frown however, he glanced at the cover of the book on top: The Potions book. Or rather: Regulus' Potions book. His brow was crinkled together as he flipped it open, confirming that the name written on the front was also written inside. My eyes widened as I looked at where Regulus was watching tensely through the beams.

"Whose book is this?" Sirius asked, his voice a little strangled.

Playing dumb, I shrugged and fiddled with my collar. It was very hot in here suddenly. "Um, mine? Why else would I have it?"

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "This is my brother's. Why do you have my brother's Potions book?" he asked quietly, glancing around the stables curiously. Luckily Regulus had the sense to disappear properly from view at once.

"Oh!" I said, slapping my forehead dramatically. "I sit beside him in Potions. I must have picked it up by mistake."

Relief seemed to flood Sirius' face as he chuckled. "Hmm. Well, let's go then."

I spared Regulus an apologetic glance over my shoulder as I followed Sirius from the stables and I was very stressed to see that he looked cold and indifferent – the worst version of his face. I tried to plead with my eyes but he just shook his head and left using the other exit.

A/N: Close call for Effie and Regulus! Thanks for reading friends! xo