I am so incredibly sorry about the length of time it took to post this. I don't even know what to say. I hope you enjoy this short chapter as I try to get back in the swing of these.


The next few weeks were absolutely dreadful for Fifth and Seventh year students. The professors had suddenly realized all at once that O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s were coming quickly upon them, forcing all of the students to work triply hard to keep up with the amount of homework they had to do. Every evening was spent either in the library, the common room, or for the 5th year girls, the room of requirement, surrounded by stacks of books and rolls of parchment doing their best to help each other pass their individual classes. Essays from teachers had doubled in length required and each piece of homework was painstakingly created to cause the most difficulty for each student.

Laurie was uncertain when she'd ever come up out of the mound of books that surrounded her in the library. She had staked out a back corner where no one had discovered a small alcove just ripe for studying. She had brought Sirius with her as well as Amber and Remus while James attached himself to their party of his own free will along with Cynthia. It had been an incredibly long time since she'd had any private moments with Sirius because of all the schoolwork. Everyone wanted to study and get ready for their exams when all Laurie really wanted to do was hide away from the stress of it all.

Sirius seemed to feel her stress level rising and squeezed her knee under the table. She leaned her head against his shoulder and sighed. If only these stupid exams were here already and then she wouldn't have to worry about cramming her brain with information that she would never remember past the test.

Thankfully some of the tests were practical exams and she felt fine about those, all except for Herbology. But she knew she would utterly fail in that anyway so she wasn't worried about it. She was really good at Transfiguration so that wouldn't be a bother, and her runes were getting much better thanks to Remus's help. She'd even done some extra studying on that particular subject and wanted to speak with Sirius about it. She had asked her professor if her idea would work, and apparently it had often been done in medieval times, though the fad had died out after that.

"Would you look at that?" Sirius murmured, his head turned toward hers, which was still resting against his shoulder.

"Look at what?" Laurie asked, tilting her head up toward him.

He kissed her suddenly and she started, though she quickly melted into him. For a few moments she forgot about school and spells and runes and let her mind keep its full attention on the kiss.

"There was nothing, was there?" Laurie said after the kiss ended.

"Well, if my girlfriend is nothing, then I suppose…" he said playfully and she made a face at him before focusing back on the homework.

"I can't do this anymore," Sirius said, shutting his book with force and leaning back in his chair. "My brain won't hold any more information. I've got to get free of this castle."

"Me too," James said, following in Sirius's footsteps and shutting his book. "We've got to take a break before we fry our brains. Who wants to go to the lake?"

Everyone sighed in relief at the prospect of a bit of a rest and they quickly gathered their things and dropped them off at their common room before heading out onto the grounds. It was still chilly, but Laurie figured it was never really warm in England, or Scotland, or wherever the castle was located. It was always cloudy and a bit drizzly. But at least the snow had pretty much stopped. It was just wet all the time now.

The group squelched through the grass toward the lake, waving at Hagrid as they passed his hut. Sirius and Laurie lagged a bit behind the group, holding hands as they meandered toward the lake.

"I've been meaning to ask you something," Laurie said, looking toward the lake.

"What is it?"

Sirius looked at her and she smiled. "I've been doing some research into protective runes and I've asked Professor Babbling and she said that they used to use them on wands frequently in medieval times. I was wondering if it would be okay if I put some on your wand."

Sirius tilted his head in thought and remained silent for a few minutes as they continued walking. Laurie had the sudden feeling that she might have overstepped her bounds, but she wasn't going to apologize for looking out for him.

"If it will make you feel better, love, then by all means, have at it. But only if you do the same to yours," he finally said.

Laurie smiled up at him with a huge grin. "Oh, thank you! I'll feel so much better!"

"I don't know why you feel so scared though. It's not like I'm going to go out and fight You-Know-Who any time soon."

"No, but I have a feeling you will in the future. And, though I hate to think about it, I most likely won't be here. I doubt after everything that's happened my mom will allow me back next year, or any year for that matter. I just want to make sure that even if I'm not here, you'll be somewhat protected."

Sirius kissed the top of her head and pulled her close, keeping his arm around her shoulder. "I don't want to think of you not being here, either. But if you feel so strongly about it, then how can I deny you?"

Laurie smiled and kissed him, grateful he'd let her do this. The rest of the afternoon was spent by the lake, Sirius and James conjuring anything they needed while they wiled away the hours before dinner. Laurie decided she'd take Sirius's wand tonight and put the protective runes on it.

"Well, it looks like it's about time for dinner. Shall we return to the castle?" James asked as the sun dipped behind the Forbidden Forest. The group got up from their prone positions on the rocky beach shore and Sirius magicked their blankets and other food remnants to the ether and everyone headed back up to the castle.

When they were back in Gryffindor tower after dinner, Sirius handed Laurie his wand to do her worst, or best, as the case may be. Laurie had books on runes surrounding her and notes written from Professor Babbling's recommendations scattered across any free space.

"What is she doing?" Laurie heard James ask Sirius when he sat down next to him on the couch a couple hours after she started. Laurie was muttering under her breath and pointing her wand at Sirius's. She knew Sirius couldn't see what she was doing, but she felt optimistic on what she could do since she already did the same to her own. Her wand now felt weird in her hand, but also more powerful in a way. It hadn't completely destroyed her wand, which was her main concern. The runes were hard to create so concisely and on such a small surface, but perhaps her artistic experience helped with such delicate work.

"Protective runes," replied Sirius. Laurie could mentally envision his careless shrug. She was thankful he trusted her, especially with something as important as a wizard's wand. The wand picks the wizard, so it's completely different than handing over say, your pen, or whatever. This was a wizard's heart and soul and lifeline. The first and last resort in any battle. She had to get this right.

She worked over Sirius's wand for another hour or so before testing a few simple spells on it and making sure everything worked the way it was supposed to. The flower she conjured seemed okay, and the wand didn't spit sparks in detest of what she did, so that was encouraging. She conjured a few more things and levitated a book before she decided it was time to give it back to Sirius.

When she looked up from her work she noticed practically everyone had gone to bed already. The fire crackled as it slowly ended its cheery devouring of the wood in the grate. Only the dying flames lit the common room and by them Laurie saw Sirius flipping pages of a book carelessly. He looked bored, but committed to wait patiently. She smiled and shoved her hair out of her face, realizing it had half fallen out of her ponytail a long time ago. She quickly righted her hair and stood up. Her motion alerting Sirius that she was done.

"All through carving my wand to bits?" he asked playfully, kissing her temple when she reached him.

"Yep. All through. I'm sorry it took so long. I just wanted to make sure I did everything correctly."

Laurie handed over his wand and Sirius took it, stepping closer to the fire light to look at her handy work closely. He ran his fingers over the carvings and played with the grip of it.

"I know it doesn't feel the same," Laurie said as she watched him. "But I think you'll get used to it." She trailed off when she saw his absentminded nod. Laurie bit her lip and sat down, hoping he didn't absolutely hate it. She tried to make it as simple, but as protective as possible. And she didn't want it to be ugly, so she made it somewhat pleasing to the eye, if runes could be so. She thought she did a pretty good job of it, though she'd have to have a professor look it over to be sure.

Laurie didn't know how long she sat there as the fire dimmed and Sirius stared at his wand, turning it over and over in his hands. She pulled a blanket around her and played with her own wand. She worried her hands over it until she thought she was going to explode, and then her wand started spurting bubbles from the tip in her distress. She set down her wand after that and laid on the couch. She was tired, and she'd have to catch up on the work they skipped later. She'd sleep right here on the couch, since obviously she wasn't going to get an answer from Sirius about his wand. She'd ask again tomorrow, if he didn't toss it in the fire during the night.