HELLO EVERYONE!
It's so great to be back. I'm so sorry…I took a two year hiatus after I hit a major writer's block and just decided to focus on school. But, now that I've graduated and moved onto bigger and better things, I am hoping to finish this, as we still have quite a ways to go in the story of Haley and Sirius.

I hope I still have some readers out there…it's been a long time, so please feel free to catch yourself up by re-reading the story (I know I had to get reacquainted with it). And, please, give me some slack for the first couple of chapters, as I'm trying to get into the groove of writing again and only want to put out the very best for my favorite readers!

I'm planning on putting out a chapter a week, as I usually work 50-60 hour weeks, but if I'm able to put out more, I most certainly will!

Please leave a review, favorite the story, whatever you would like to do!

Again, I'm so glad to be back, and happy holidays!

Just a few weeks after our graduation was my 18th birthday. Not only was it the day of my birthday, though. It was also the day of Lily and James's wedding. I had, jokingly of course, suggested they plan their nuptials on my birthday (because it was the best day of the year), but my joke had turned serious when the church Lily wanted to book with was full on the day she had originally picked out.

Which meant it was moved to the next weekend, my birthday.

I didn't mind though. It was a good way to spend a birthday- watching two of your best friends getting married.

I heard a knock at the door just as I shoved the rest of my make-up into my small bag, which I had magically enlarged to fit my dress, shoes, and jewelry.

"Boyfriends here," Daniel said gruffly as he passed by my room, not bothering to stop as he made his way toward his own. He slammed the door shut behind him, effectively keeping me from responding to him at all.

I huffed in frustration, making a quick face at the door, before grabbing my small clutch and shoving it underneath my arm. I pushed my feet into sandals, trying to save my feet from the heels that Lily had picked out for us to wear.

I left my room, taking the stairs two at a time. I spotted Sirius in the hallway by the front door, appearing cool and indifferent to the fact that my dad was sending glares so menacing toward him that it would have surely scared even Professor McGonagall.

I smiled widely as Sirius caught my eye and he returned the gesture, his lips curving upward in that lazy grin that still made me weak at the knees. I turned toward my father first, standing on my tip toes to kiss him lightly on the cheek.

"I'll be back tomorrow," I said quickly, breaking eye contact as his eyebrows shot dangerously close to his receding hairline.

As Sirius opened the front door for me, sweeping his hand toward my lawn, I spotted the shiny, black motorbike that I had been perusing on more often than not as of lately.

My father, of course, was none too happy about it. The first time he locked his eyes on the bike, he turned to my mother and, rather heatedly, stated, "I thought having a magical family meant that I never had to watch my daughter leave on the back of a motorbike."

I had been embarrassed by my father's lack of curtsey, but Sirius didn't seem to care then. And he certainly didn't seem to care now.

"We have to get going, love, if we're going to make it to the church on time," Sirius boredly threw out there, though I heard the underlying anxious tone to his voice. He had tried to talk himself out of being the best man for James since a couple days after James asked, but never had the heart to actually tell him.

"How am I supposed to be the best man?" he said one time, cutting up his chicken at an alarming rate, "I don't even believe in marriage. I don't even support marriage." He had paused to stuff half of his dinner into his mouth. "I mean…" he chewed for a few minutes and swallowed the massive lump of food. "How can I stand next to him and completely support his decision to marry Lily when I'm not sure if he should."

I would nod and smile at first, but finally put my foot down a couple weeks before the wedding. He had clamped up and didn't talk about it after that, but I had the sneakiest suspicion that he was still whispering about it to Remus behind my back.

I climbed down the porch stairs as the front door shut behind me. Just as I was about to swing my leg over the side of the bike, Sirius grasped a hold of my arm and pulled me around. His lips were on mine less than a second later and, had me not had a firm hold of my lower back, I'm pretty certain I would have sunk to the gravel that filled the pathway up to my house.

He drew away much sooner than I would have intended, but gave me one more peck before assisting me onto the back of his bike. He slid in front of me and I wrapped my arms around his waist, pulling myself closely to him.

He kicked the bike in gear and we were off a minute later, zooming down the road at top speed.

The church that Lily and James had chosen was a little less than 30 minutes from my house, but that was just enough time for my hair to be tangled into a mess of knots by the time we arrived. I recognized a few faces as we crossed the busy sidewalk, most of them being old schoolmates that we had just graduated with. We silently climbed the stairs together and, as soon as we entered the church, Sirius split off into the direction of the Groom's room.

I followed the hallway to the left, where it curved toward the back of the church. Lily picked a room as far away from the main entrance as possible, as she wanted to make sure that James had no way of seeing her before the ceremony.

As I walked up to the room, I tapped on the door, calling out to make sure that everyone knew it was me before I walked in. As I slowly pushed open the door, someone else had yanked it open from the other side.

A very frazzled, very anxious Lily stood in front of me, her wedding dress still hanging on a hook behind her. She was merely in her undergarments, which I'm sure she only wanted James to see at that point, and I glanced away, my cheeks flaming at the sight of one of my best friends in…er…that small amount of clothing.

"What am I going to do?" she wailed as she pulled me inside, slamming the door behind me. I quickly shot a look of helplessness to Alice and Mary, who were both shaking their heads, their eyes wide with fear. "Look at me. I'm 18. I'm getting married. To-" She paused, clenching her fists in balls at her side, "to James Potter!"

She stormed over to the mirror, slamming her hands down on the vanity as she leaned over to look at herself in the mirror. "Am I nuts?" she asked, more to herself, as she was still staring at herself in the mirror. "Am I crazy? This time last year I hated that man. More than anything." She spun around, pointing at me with a crazed look in her eye. "And then YOU had to introduce me to him. To the real him. And I fell in love- I fell…" She trailed off, plopping down into the plush cushion that sat in front of the vanity.

She looked up at me, her eyes glittering with unshed tears. "Am I crazy?"

I crossed the room, dropping to my knees in front of her. I took her hands in mine, clasping them tightly together. "You're marrying your best friend today," I started, but she cut me off with a small sob, followed by a slightly smile. "You love him and he loves you. Who cares if you fell in love and are getting married in less than a year?"

She leaned forward and threw her arms around my neck, pulling me tightly to her. "I knew you would make the best maid of honor," she whispered in my ear as she placed her hands on each shoulder and pushed me gently away. I stood from my perch on the ground, straightening out my legs as I grabbed onto her hands and helped her stand up.

"Shall we get you ready for your wedding?"

She nodded enthustiastically, her smile broadly covering her face as she settled down in front of the vanity. Mary popped over to her, pulling out a large bag of makeup before turning her attention to Lily, who was sitting as still as possible.

"Thank Merlin for you," Alice whispered as she bumped her shoulder with mine. "We were trying to calm her down for fifteen minutes before you got here. I thought for sure we would have to cancel the wedding." I merely chuckled and shook my head.

Getting ready for the ceremony didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. Mary had Lily's hair and makeup done within the hour and, luckily, Lily didn't have another break down as the three of us gathered around the mirror to apply our makeup and do our own hair.

I decided to curl my blonde locks into a sleeker curl, rather than the frizzy mess it usually was, and pin it to the back of my head. Soft tendrils grazed the tops of my shoulders, but the majority of it was pinned up. Lily was pulled from the room by her parents, who both cried at the immediate sight of her, for pictures with the family outside of the church.

Petunia, Lily's sister, barely cracked a smile for the camera and, as soon as the opportunity presented itself, I noticed that she scooted off to her own fiancé, Vernon, who had been hovering near the back of the church, looking uncomfortable in a suit surrounded by men and women in dress robes.

I couldn't help but think, as we lined just outside the door to the church just a few minutes later, my bouquet of flowers clutched tightly at my chest, that this may be the only time I walk down the aisle to Sirius Black. But, as the doors opened and the soft organ music swirled with the summer breeze, I caught the eye of the love of my life, who had looked past Lily Evans and all her bridal glory to stare at me.

He winked and smiled widely at me, causing my heart to pitter patter against my rib cage. I suppressed the thought of my future with Sirius, choosing to focus on the task at hand. Managing to walk down the aisle without tripping in front of the entire crowd.

"You changed the…I can't believe you changed the vows!" Lily exclaimed as she smacked her now-husband on the arm. Sirius busted out with laughter as I snorted into my butterbeer, managing to recover before the drink shot out of my nose.

"I had to throw that in there, you know that!" James retorted, dodging another blow from Lily's fist as he wrestled with a string of decorations he had been trying to tear from the ceiling, "marriage vows are more sacred than unbreakable vows! If I didn't put in there that you would always support the Chudley Cannons, you would never have agreed to it!"

Lily mumbled something intangible under her breath, which I wasn't able to catch, but sent Sirius into another fit of laughter.

"I, for one, thought it was a lovely and funny way to end the ceremony," Mary reminisced with a sigh as she folded a set of tablecloths and set them into the bin for the caterer to wash, "added a piece of…pizzaz to everything." She kissed her fingers and flicked them outward, imitating an Italian chef admiring his work.

Lily narrowed her eyes at our best friend, pointing at her accusingly. "You were in on it, weren't you? You helped him come up with that."

Mary shrugged, grinning slyly from her corner of the hall. "Who else would have been able to pay the priest to add that into the vows? Surely James wouldn't have afforded to do that himself."

The new bride skirted her eyes around the room, glancing at each of our faces momentarily. "You were all in on it, weren't you? Every single one of you."

Sirius came up behind me and gripped my waist firmly, planting a kiss on my cheek. "The only other person who didn't know was Haley," he interjected, as I had just opened my mouth to correct Haley, "and that is because you wouldn't have been able to keep a secret, my love."

I opened and closed my mouth a few times before finally settling on the fact that Sirius was, in fact, right with his statement. That secret wouldn't have lasted too long in my hands and James wouldn't have been able to get the only detail into the wedding that he really, truly cared about.

"And as much as we would love to help the rest of you clean up from the wedding," Sirius went on as he slowly ushered me toward the door, "I have to get up early tomorrow for school. So we're going to have to call it a night."

Lily flounced over, her dress still immaculately white despite all of the sticky-fingered hugs from the younger children in the Potter/Evans extended families. She dragged me into a tight hug, winding her arms around my neck before kissing my cheek and pulling back. "Thank you so much," she exclaimed before tossing herself into Sirius's arms, hugging him tightly as well, "for everything. Today was…today was perfect."

James made his way over, a grin plastered on his face, as he hugged me tightly before turning to Sirius and patting him roughly on the back. "Yeah, thank you both. Couldn't have made this day so special for Lily without the two of you."

After a few more minutes of 'thank yous' and 'goodbyes', Sirius and I finally managed to make our way out of the hall where the Potter's held their wedding reception.

My heart thumped against my chest as Sirius silently handed me his bike helmet before swinging his leg over and offering me his hand. Something felt different between us, an energetic spark in the summer air that hadn't been there before. He looked over his shoulder, staring deeply into my bright, brown eyes before kicking his bike into gear and speeding off toward his apartment.

We got back to his place in the nick of time, much shorter of a drive than I had been anticipating. I slid off the bike as lady-like as I could, considering I was still wearing the short bridesmaids dress that Lily had picked out months earlier. Sirius grabbed my hand and led me up the back staircase that ended at the landing to his apartment door.

Without saying a word, he opened the door and shuffled me inside. I stood awkwardly in the entrance to his flat, staring up at him with a look of uncertainty. He seemed to be torn in the same way I was, feeling that electricity between us, but not quite knowing what it was supposed to mean.

"In all of the chaos today, I didn't get to give you a proper happy birthday," he said quietly as I kicked off my heels, letting them fall into a pile by the front door. His arms were crossed tightly around his chest, clearly uncomfortable and uncertain with the situation between us, for whatever reason. "I have a gift for you, but I left it at James's by accident, I'll pick it up on my way home tomor-"

I cut him off with a sharp kiss to his lips, which he hungrily responded to.

"Haley, I-"

"Will you get the back of this dress for me? It's getting rather itchy," I cut him off as I turned around, gesturing to the zipper that dipped deeply down my back. He let out a slow breath before gently resting a hand on my shoulder, centering my body so he could slide the zipper down. I closed my eyes, allowing myself to feel his warmth consume the pit of my stomach.

"Haley," he said shortly, his breath catching in the back of his throat. I could almost feel his eyes bulging out of his sockets as the dress fell to the floor.

Before I had left my house, I had slid on a lacy strapless bra and a pair of matching panties.

I turned to him, crossing my arms over my chest in embarrassment. I bit my lip as I dropped my gaze to the floor, wondering to myself if this was even a good idea. We had never been intimate, let alone discussed it. He knew I had never done…that…with a man before. At first I figured he was being a gentleman, taking his time. But as the weeks wore on and he never even let his hands wander past my lower back, I slowly started to wonder if it was…me.

Sirius grasped my hands gently, pulling them off my chest as he took a step back and passed his eyes across my body. I felt the heat rise up again in my cheeks.

"Are you sure?" he managed to choke out as his gray eyes, darkening in color with me standing in front of him in nothing but lingerie, bored into my own. "I don't want to do anything you're not ready fo-"

"I'm ready," I cut him off again, just getting my voice above a whisper. The longing and hunger in his eyes dropped the heat from my cheeks to the pit of my stomach and I found myself wondering why it was taking him so long. "I've thought about it," I continued on, finding a way to ramble under the stress of the situation, "and I've really been wanting to-"

It was his turn to cut me off as he lunged forward and swept me into his arms. He slammed his lips against mine in a way that I didn't even know one could be kissed. The warmth of his mouth only increased the heat coursing through my body. He walked me backward, flicking off his riding jacket, leaving it lying uncared for on the floor.

He walked me into the hallway, where my bare back pressed against the cool, painted wall. I reached up, slowly unbuttoning his shirt as he watched me with hawk-like eyes, his fingers grazing my panty line. "Are you absolutely sure?" he pressed on, just as I had reached the bottom button. "We don't have to do this tonight, Haley, we can wait if you want to."

I stood on my tip-toes, gently kissing him on the lips. "I just want you, Sirius," I mumbled under my breath, "I want all of you."

That must have been all of the reassurance he needed, as he pulled off his shirt, leaving both the button down and the undershirt lying in the hallway. He reached down, grasping just under my butt, and hoisting me into the air. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he planted his lips on mine once again.

He carried me toward the back bedroom, clumsily dropping me onto the bed before shutting off the light.