A/N: Lots of fluffy romance coming up in this chapter

A/N: Lots of fluffy romance coming up in this chapter. Hope you enjoy, reviews are loved!

Chapter Fifty-One

"Please sit up as straight as you can, mr. Williams."

Mary was standing in the St. Mungo's research Hall and about to pour a bit of potion into the mouth of a skinny old-looking wizard. As she was helping the man to get up, Mary still couldn't believe her luck. Only yesterday morning she was still in her ordinary robes, sitting in a classroom at the Healer Program, when Pierce came bursting in to announce he had narrowed down his trainee candidates to four people: Zack, some guy called Goran Brezjnev who Mary didn't know, Ching-Lu, and herself.

Pierce took the four of them to St. Mungo's and explained their main tasks on the way. He told them that they weren't allowed to examine or heal real patients, because they were not actual interns, or at least not yet.

What they were allowed to do, was participating in the research to discover the ingredient (or combination of) in the Imperius-protective potion that was causing the user's skin to turn purple. They had been ordered to brew their own version of the potion and test it on a volunteering patient. The Ministry had even granted them special permission to cast the Imperius-curse on the guinea pigs. Pierce handed out the special St. Mungo's-limegreen robes before dividing them into two groups (Zack & Goran and Mary & Ching-Lu) and stating that the team who had done best at the end of the week would become this years Spell Damage-interns. And so, Mary and Ching-Lu had spent the last two days in a small room, studying and adding ingredients to a large cauldron – thankfully, Ching-Lu was a better potionmaker than Mary – until they had finally created (what they hoped would be) an Imperius-protective potion without the annoying side effect.

Williams was now sitting up straight and eyed the flask Mary was holding with interest. "So that's the potion, then," he said merrily in his wheezy voice.

Mary smiled back weakly. She shot a nervous look at Ching-Lu. "Are you sure this is going to work?"

Her friend nodded confidently, although Mary could detect at least some uncertainty underneath that self-assured posture. "It has to, Mary," she said. "Polygala is used as the "Will Strenghtener", but when overdosed, it can cause a purple tinge to the patient's skin. However, if the polygala is being stabilized with the right amount of calming chamomile – like we did in our potion – it should work out fine."

"Should work out," Mary said doubtfully before looking at Williams. "Sir, are you still willing to volunteer in this experiment?"

The old man sniggered. "My dear, an entire team of healers is currently trying to heal and reduce my wife's immensely swollen bottom. I really don't need to see that. Frankly, I'm just bored and would like to see what you girls came up with." He grinned. "So bring it on."

"Alright then." Mary carefully poured a couple of potion drops into Williams's throat. He smacked his lips a few times before swallowing the potion down. "Not too bad," he said and wiped his mouth.

Mary and Ching-Lu exchanged glances before Mary aimed her wand at Williams. She was about to cast Imperio on him when he suddenly raised a hand to stop her.

"Mr. Williams," Ching-Lu asked, looking worried. "Are you okay?"

Williams suddenly looked very bloated. He was blowing up his cheeks and groaned before he opened his mouth slightly as if he was trying to say something.

Ching-Lu looked frozen on the spot, but Mary quickly put her wand down on the table and bowed so she could look Williams in the eyes. "Please sir," she said, trying to remain calm. "Could you describe what you're feeling exactly so that we can make the pain go away?"

Williams – still groaning - swallowed with difficulty before he nodded. When Mary noticed he was opening his mouth again, she leaned in a little closer to hear what he had to say, but nothing came out. At least no words. Because before Williams could have said or do anything else, he was vomiting all over her.

Mary jumped up, spluttering for air as she felt the content of Wiliams's stomach dripping off her face, down her neck and her hair. The sickening smell was almost unbearable. "I'm so sorry, dear," Williams said, looking embarrassed.

"That's quite alright, sir," Mary replied with a forced smile, trying her best to fight the strong impulse to start throwing up herself, before looking over at Ching-Lu at the other side of the bed, who was giggling madly. "Ching-Lu, would you please…"

"Oh yeah, sorry." Ching-Lu – still laughing – pointed her wand and Mary could literally feel the vomit disappear. She heaved a relieved sigh. "Thanks," she said gratefully and looked at Williams, who was still looking nauseated. She quickly conjured a large bowl out of thin air and put it on his chest, so he could puke into that instead of vomiting all over her face again.

They helplessly stared at their patient for a while, who was now constantly vomiting every three minutes. "So… Now what?" Ching-Lu asked after she gave Williams a bit of water when he had thrown up again.

"Well, at least he's not turning purple," Mary replied. She was leafing through his chart. "Perhaps he's allergic to one of the ingredients we added. We didn't really check that, did we?"

"How's it going in here?"

Pierce was poking his head around the door. His brow furrowed when his eyes fell on the bowl that a miserable-looking Williams was holding with both hands. "Care to explain what happened?" he asked in a stern voice as he was walking in.

"Eh… Well sir, we made a slight chance to the potion ingredients…" Ching-Lu started hesitantly.

"And this is what happened," Mary finished, avoiding Pierce's eyes before she continued bravely: "However, on the bright side…"

"I did not turn turple," Williams managed to say before he had to dive back into the bowl for another round of vomiting.

Pierce's anger disappeared at once and was replaced by surprise. "He didn't?"

"No sir," Ching-Lu – realizing their case wasn't lost yet – replied quickly. "We adjusted the amount of polygala and chamomile and that seemed to work. But now the purpleness has been replaced by this gag-reflex."

"That's not really a problem," Pierce replied as he reached for his wand and pointed it straight at Williams. "Subvenio."

The patient got up from hanging over the bowl and leaned back on his pillow, looking relieved. "Ah, that's much better," he smiled. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Pierce answered kindly before he looked over at Mary. "So mr. Williams here really didn't turn purple?"

"No sir," Mary said.

"And he was insensible to the Imperius Curse?"

"Eh well, we hadn't gotten to that point yet."

"Ah." Pierce gave her an understanding nod and looked slightly disappointed. He pointed his wand at Williams once more and said clearly: "Imperio."

At first nothing happened, but then Williams was jumping out of his bed and started to dance a little jig right in front of them. Mary and Ching-Lu watched his performance with open mouths and only looked up at Pierce when he finally lifted the curse. Williams stopped dancing at once and looked slightly confused. "How did I get from there to here? And why am I standing?"

Pierce smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. "Turns out the potion these ladies brewed could not protect you against the Imperius-Curse, but there is still enough time left. Would you mind coming back tomorrow?"

Mary and Ching-Lu exchanged gloomy glances, both expecting Williams to turn down Pierce's invitation. But to their surprise, he grinned and said enthusiastically: "I'd be delighted to remain part of this essential research."

"Wonderful," Pierce replied. "I also came to tell you that your wife's behind has been successfully reduced to its normal size and that she's waiting for you in the lobby. If you could please step outside for a moment, I will join you in a second and walk you to the exit."

Williams shook his hand and after he'd said goodbye to Mary and Ching-Lu, walked out of the room.

"So," Pierce said the minute Williams had closed the door. "And what did you two learn today?"

"To not test a new potion on a patient unless you're absolutely sure it's safe," they replied almost simultaneously.

Pierce smiled. "That's right, but apart from that, you did not so bad. Now, it has been another long day for both of you, so I suggest you go home. However, I expect to see you back tomorrow morning at eight."

After giving them another look, Pierce turned around to leave the room, but he stopped and looked back when Mary asked: "Sir, did we do worse than the others?"

"Merlin no," the healer replied with twinking eyes. "At least your patient didn't have to suffer any limbs falling off." He shot her a significant look before leaving the room.

Ching-Lu turned to look at Mary. "Limbs falling off?"

Mary giggled. "Suddenly gag-relfex doesn't sound so bad anymore, huh?"

"I'll say," Ching-Lu said, shaking her head. "Anyway, I'm going home. Are you coming along?"

Mary nodded and the two girls headed to the lobby together. After Ching-Lu had made Mary promise that the two of them would meet again at the very same spot the next day, she disapparated with a pop. Mary knew she was supposed to go home as well, but she wasn't really looking forward to it. Being at home, or with Sirius actually, hadn't exactly been pleasant over the past few days.

Ever since Regulus died, Sirius's behaviour had been unpredictable. Mary only managed to cope with his indifferent and reticent behaviour or angry moods, because she knew that he was just trying to deal with his brother's death. So most of the time she just left him alone. And he appreciated that, or she thought he did. The only time Mary had tried to put her foot down was when Sirius wanted to go to Regulus's funeral on his own. She told him that was a ridiculous idea (what she actually meant was that she hated him for shutting her out like this, but she couldn't tell him that) and he flared up at once, yelling that she should get off his back. Mary agreed with him in the end in order to keep the peace, but she had thought of Sirius throughout the day, secretly wishing she could have been at the funeral to support him.

But it had been since the day before yesterday, the day of Regulus's funeral, that Sirius had changed. He was no longer that touchy or reticent, although he refused to tell Mary much about the memorial service. It left her wondering what happened that day to make Sirius transform like this. And although Mary definitely preferred the new Sirius over the old one, she couldn't help but notice he was acting all nervous and twitchy, like he was trying to hide something.

Mary sighed. She couldn't hang out in this lobby all night. She had to face Sirius sooner or later anyway, so why not right now? She took a big breath and disapparated to their home. After she had put her robes on the hall stand, she walked into the living room. She noticed Sirius was lounging on the couch, reading a copy of the Evening Prophet. "Hey," she said casually while simultaneously attempting to decipher his current mood.

"Hi," Sirius replied in a remarkably cheerful voice. He put the newspaper aside and got up from the couch. "How was your day?"

Mary considered this for a moment, remembering stressing over the potion and – not in the last place – being puked over by Willams. "Captivating," she decided eventually. "Yours?"

"I was bored to death. So tell me, what about the Imperius-protective potion?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Of course," he nodded, and Mary – still pleasantly surprised about Sirius being so cheerful – filled him in on what happened with Williams.

He snorted. "He puked on you?"

"Hu-huh, all over my face."

Sirius burst out laughing. He hadn't been laughing like that since Regulus had tracked them down. Mary was so relieved to see him being happy again that she joined in laughing instead of smacking him for laughing at her, like she normally would have done.

"Hey," Sirius said, still sniggering. "What's that in your hair? Is that a piece of… omelette?"

Mary's hand shot up to her hair. "Iewww! Where?"

He burst out laughing again. "I was just kidding. Merlin Mare, you're so gullible it's cute."

Mary narrowed her eyes. "Ha ha, very funny. You know," she said as she turned around, "I'd like to see your reaction when you get puked over by an eldery man. Let me tell you, that was not… What's this?"

Mary had walked into the kitchen. The room was being lit by several candles and the table had been set with dishes of lobster, salad, bread, a bottle of elf-wine and a vase with the most beautiful red roses Mary had ever seen. "But how… Why?" she asked Sirius who was now standing next to her, smiling as he shot a satisfied look at the table. "I thought it was about time I made you dinner instead of the other way around."

Mary looked stunned. "Okay, who are you and what have you done to my boyfriend?"

Sirius wasn't insulted. On the contrary, he looked merely amused when he walked up behind her to put his hands on her hips and leaned his chin on her shoulder. "I figured you deserve a nice dinner, that's all."

Mary turned around and she could see that Sirius expected her to kiss him, but instead she lifted his chin firmly with her hand so she could look him straight in the eye. "Are you sure no one has used Imperius on you?"

Sirius chuckled before answering more seriously: "Look, I'm aware that the last weeks haven't been easy for us. With Regulus's death and all…"

"I know, but-"

"-And because you put up with me and my mood swings," Sirius continued undisturbed, "You deserve a big thank you. So tonight, you are my little princess and I'm going to pamper you all the way through. Please take a seat."

Mary obeyed and sat down, still feeling bemused. Was this the same moody guy from last week who had yelled at her for the most random things? She took a sip of wine as she watched Sirius filling her plate with lobster and salad. "This looks great."

He smiled before putting the plate down in front of her. "And it tastes good, too. Dig in."

Mary took a bite of lobster. And she had to admit: it was absolutely delicious. "Hmm," she said. "It's wonderful. Did you make this?"

"Yes."

"But… You cannot cook," she said, lifting her eyebrows in surprise.

Sirius laughed. "I can't bake an omelette, true enough. Kreacher did all that stuff when I was younger, but lobster was the one dish my mother could make herself. And she passed on that… recipe to me and Regulus." He shrugged. "I never expected to be making it myself, but there you go. Anyway, you should try the lobster with this sauce. Here."

Sirius fed her his fork of lobster and Mary gave him a fork of her salad in return. In the end, they were feeding their plates of lobster, salad and bread to each other. When they had finished eating the main dish, Sirius casually waved his wand and the plate of lobster left-overs got replaced by one giant bowl filled with different balls of ice cream. "Wow…" Mary said, staring at the bowl in awe. "That's a lot of icecream."

Sirius grinned. "It's new: Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Icecream. I thought it might be fun to try out."

Mary smiled and peered into the bowl. She prodded a green ball of icecream with interest. "Do you think this might be pistachio?"

"There's only one way to find out, right?"

Mary took a spoon full of the green icecream. She pulled a face. "Grass."

Sirius laughed. "How about this one?" He fed her a bit of a soft pink colored ball. "Better?"

Mary closed her eyes while savoring the taste. "Raspberry," she smiled.

They amused themselves by feeding the ice cream to each other for another while, but after they had tried all the tastes they could muster (Sirius got onion, ketchup, cherry, cinnamon and beef and Mary got caramel, soap, orange, curry and liquorice), Sirius waved his wand again to clean up the mess. After he transported the dishes over to the sink where they started to clean themselves, he walked back to Mary and pulled her up from her seat. Before she got the chance to say anything at all, he lifted her up in his arms and started to carry her over to the back door. Mary laughed. "Sirius, what are you doing?"

He grinned back before opening the door and carrying her outside. "Princesses are not allowed to walk, didn't you know?"

"What? But that is just ridicu…"

Mary stopped talking mid-sentence when she noticed Sirius was carrying her to the roof terrace. And he wasn't just walking on the ground. It seemed like he was walking on a red carpet of… were that rose petals? Mary was completely flabbergasted as she admired the roof terrace, where over a hundred tiny candles were floating through the air, shimmering slightly in the soft evening breeze. She felt a bit dazed and buried her face in Sirius's neck – who kept on walking as if nothing extraordinary was happening –, inhaling his scent and aftershave with every breath she took. Surely this was a bit too much spectacle for a simple making up-dinner? What was going on?

Her mind shot back into gear when Sirius put her down in the middle of the roof terrace. They were surrounded by several dark red fluffy pillows and Mary spotted an ice bucket with a bottle of champagne and two glasses standing on a little table. She shot Sirius a perplexed look and was about to ask him what was going on when he softly put a finger on her lips. "Please… I'd like to say a few things and I need you to not interrupt me. Can you do that?"

Mary wasn't sure if she could have said anything if she had to, so she just nodded slowly, still feeling bemused and hardly aware of the rose petals among their feet or the candles floating around in the air. All she could see was Sirius, who was no longer looking confident, but seemed to be struggling to find the right words. And was that a hint of insecurity in his eyes?

Sirius took a big breath before reaching for both her hands. "Like I said before, the last weeks haven't been easy for us, but I've acted like a real jerk and Regulus's death is no excuse for how I treated you."

Mary opened her mouth to contradict him, but he noticed this and quickly continued: "But you stuck by me and I realize – now more than ever – that this means the world to me. You know, somewhere deep down inside there's still that little boy that's waiting, perhaps even hoping, to be rejected. But lately I've come to realize that-" He paused to smile and squeeze her hand softly "-You really are not going anywhere. And if last week has taught me anything, it's that you shouldn't waste time. You only live once…"

He frowned and Mary got the distinct impression that he hadn't exactly prepared this speech but was rather coming up with the words spontaneously. "I mean," Sirius continued. "Look at Regulus. He was only eighteen years old and what did he achieve in his miserable little life? Life's too short to be standing still. I don't want to be walking this road on my own anymore. You deserve… No, we deserve to spend the good and bad times together, and with that I mean really together. Which is why…"

Sirius let go of Mary's hand, reached in his pocket and got out a little square box, made of black velvet. She stared at the box with wide eyes and an open mouth. When she watched how he was kneeling down on one knee, she clasped her free hand to her mouth.

Sirius, keeping the opened jewelry box in one hand and her hand in the other, smiled up at her. "Sweet, sweet Mary, will you marry me?"

Mary – still holding her hand in front of her mouth – stared at him. She could hardly believe her ears. Was this really happening? Was he actually proposing to her? She half-expected it all to be one big dream. In fact, she wouldn't be surprised if she was forced to wake up by Sirius nudging her (or worse: her alarm clock) any time soon. But this didn't seem to occur. Instead, he was still holding up that little black box with the shiny ring and shooting her an expectant look. Mary suddenly became aware of the fact that her continuous silence could be giving Sirius the wrong idea, so she immediately started to nod feverishly, making clear that she was more than willing to become mrs. Black.

Sirius grinned, his old confidence already restored. "You know, officially you are supposed to say "yes" or "I want to" or something along those lines."

Mary shot him a bemused look before she understood what he was talking about and cried: "Yes, yes, of course I will!"

Sirius smiled and slowly put the shiny ring on the ring finger of her hand before getting up. Mary didn't want to waste any time and practically jumped on top of him to give him the closest hug she could muster. Sirius laughed and hugged her back. "I love you so much," Mary whispered in his ear before kissing him passionately.

"I love you too," he said softly when they broke apart. "Do you like the ring?"

She admired the open-sided platinum ring with one shiny diamond in the middle. "Like? I love it."

Sirius laughed. "Prongs thought it was a little too modern for his taste."

"James knew about this?"

"Yeah, I actually had to ask him how to do a proper wedding proposal."

Mary arched an eyebrow. "You asked James for love advice?"

Sirius chuckled. "I know. It's like an altered universe, isn't it?"

"You can say that again," she mumbled, watching how her ring was twinkling in the candlelight. "So… What did James say?"

"He was more confident about this than I was, to be honest. But we did this little mind game that is supposed to take all your doubts away and that worked out pretty well."

"What kind of game?"

Sirius shrugged. "Oh, you know: that game where someone asks you random and big questions at will and you have to answer them instinctively to realize what you really want."

Mary choked on her champagne. "You're kidding!"

Sirius shot her a curious look. "What, you know that game?"

Mary looked back at him, realizing that Lily must have told James all about her little breakdown right before the wedding. She remembered the way she fired insignificant and essential questions at her best friend in that snowy graveyard, trying to find out if James really was the love of Lily's life. Mary suddenly knew with one hundred per cent certainty that she would never need a quiz like that to know if she and Sirius were meant to be together. In fact, there was no single hair on her head that did not want to marry him. But she'd rather die than ever telling him that.

So instead, she simply smiled up at him and – as she laced her fingers through his – replied casually: "I might have heard of it."

End of Update

A/N: So… He did ask her. And more importantly: she said yes! They're engaged now… Let me know what you think! Thanks –Mara.