A/N: I'm so excited for you all to read these two chapters! See you back on February 8th!

Sirius:

Sirius poured over the map, trying for the life of him to think of where Marlene would go. He had spent the majority of the night before doing the same thing. When James had burst out that he was certain they were somewhere in the kingdom, Sirius let his heart hope. Hope that they had decided to be closer to James, to him.

It was ridiculous to hope that he had anything to do with it. Marlene had made it clear how she felt about him, but Marlene didn't get a say in where she went or didn't. Lily held that power.

But, if James was right, maybe there was something for Sirius and Marlene. Maybe there was a chance that they could have something. It obviously couldn't be anything conventional, they weren't conventional people, no guardian was, but it could be something, it could be them.

Sirius started as James groaned and slammed his head against the back of his chair, causing Elias to chuckle. James' job was to try and come up with anything that would give them an idea of where Lily and Marlene would have gone, and the scouring of his mind was anything but quiet.

"Your Majesty," one of the runners entered James' private sitting room, "Your late mother's guardian, Ruth, along with two guests, begs an audience."

"Of course, Timothy," James nodded, "Send Ruthie and her friends in."

Sirius turned to smile at Ruth and felt his heart stop beating in his chest.

Flanking Ruth were Lily and Marlene.

But not as Sirius had come to recognize them while they'd been traveling. Lily was dressed like the princess she was in a rather familiar-looking gown in a green and gold brocade, her tiara intricately plaited into her hair.

But it was Marlene that he couldn't look away from. Her blue dress was plain, but Sirius could see exactly why she chose it. The deep blue of the fabric pulled the color of her eyes forward and made her golden curls shine brighter somehow. Her wand and rapier were belted at her small waist and Sirius could see the signs of daggers hidden about her person. The simple design of the dress made her both stunning and perfectly capable of holding her oath.

He couldn't breathe.

"Your Majesty," Ruth curtsied with a smirk, "I believe you know my friends."

Sirius looked over at James and was pleased to see he wasn't reacting any better to this surprise. But Sirius was sure of one thing, he wanted Marlene alone, now. So he found air, and then his voice.

"James," Sirius moved from behind the table to stand next to his brother, "I'm sure you and Lily have a lot to discuss. Why don't you take her back to your room and Marlene and I will stand guard."

James blinked, "Right, er, if you'd like to, Lily, I have a couple of chairs, and we can talk, just talk," he glanced nervously at Marlene.

Lily smiled and moved with all the grace of a princess to James' side.

"I'd like that," she took his arm and smiled up at him.

"Right," James' face broke into a small smile as he led them through the door to his room.

"I would feel better being in the antechamber, Sirius." Marlene frowned at the door James walked through as it closed.

"Of course," Sirius smiled and moved to open the door, "after you."

Marlene walked through and Sirius tried to ignore the way Ruth and Elias stared at him. He didn't even have words for this in his brain, let alone words to explain to his teachers what was going on.

Instead, he focused on closing the door that led into his room, and then James'. With the click of the latch, he gained the privacy with Marlene he craved.

But when he turned back to her, he was met with tears standing in her eyes.

"You're alive," she whispered.

"I'm told that's thanks to you." Sirius wanted to hit something at thinking she'd thought him dead for nearly three weeks.

She shook her head, "I'm sure it was Remus."

"No, he told me your foul brew is what kept me from dying," Sirius smirked and took the remaining steps between them.

"Why," her voice broke, "why did you jump in front of that spell?"

Sirius pulled a hand over his face. He didn't want to have these hard conversations, and especially not now. But he knew Marlene, and he wouldn't get very far without them.

"I'm a bit of a loyal prat."

Marlene raised an eyebrow at him and Sirius sighed.

"The night of the attack on the Ottery border, James asked, as my brother, that I help protect Lily the same as I do him. The way he asked, I knew it would tangle itself in my oath, but I didn't make him rephrase it."

Sirius took Marlene's hand and pulled her to sit on his bed with him before continuing.

"I let it be tangled in my oath because I wanted it to be. I wanted a way to help you. And, and I wanted a way to protect you. He asked after I had seen you at your lowest, Marls. And it was the lies we told you that put you there! You wouldn't have felt like you needed to kill the man if you knew who we were! Add to it what would have happened if we'd been attacked again with you not able to respond... I was willing to walk through fire for you at that point, I still am. So I let it become binding."

He squeezed her hand, "And I'm glad because we would have lost both you and Lily if I hadn't."

A few tears escaped down her cheek and Marlene angrily swiped at them. "You're a loyal prat and I want to hex you for this."

Sirius wiped her tears with his thumb. "But you're not going to?"

Marlene gave him a watery laugh, "No, I suppose I'm not. I probably would have killed the man holding James anyway." She rested her hand against his chest, "To save you, honestly. I didn't know until Enid what it meant for our blood to burn. I would have still thought both your lives in danger. If my attempt to free James hadn't worked, I probably would have gotten desperate."

She looked up at him with full determination in her eyes. "But you shouldn't have done this without my permission. Now we have the problem that you're bound to my charge and I'm not bound to yours."

"You are, to a point," Sirius hedged, he knew where she was going with this. He knew the only way to make things even.

"No," her voice was firm, "We will have equality here Sirius, I will be linked to James."

"What if things don't work out for James and Lily?" He knew it was futile, but Sirius owed her something after what he put her through, owed her a way out.

"I've changed my mind, I will hex you," her face looked up at his with a smirk.

Sirius groaned but smiled, "I knew you'd be the end of me."

"Don't worry about Lily and James," Marlene glanced back at the door that led to James' room, "He'll have a lot to make up for, but Lily's different now, better. I'd put my money on things working out for them."

Sirius smiled at the door before looking back down at her, "So you're set on this equality thing then?"

"Yes, so we'll take care of that soon, preferably without Lily at first. She's upset enough now that she actually understands what me being her guardian means."

Sirius nodded, "I might be able to make it so James doesn't even know, but we'll get to that later." Then he switched gears to something he'd wanted to say since they joined up at Diagon. "I'm sorry I had to lie to you, Marlene. I'm so sorry. I know following my sovereign's command is no excuse…"

"I understand," she cut him off, "you're a bit of a loyal prat after all."

She was so close. He could feel her breath on his chest, her blue eyes were shining against her golden hair and the blue of her dress. Her smirk was pulling him in, closing the distance between them. And Sirius was pulled back to the night before the attack when she stared up at him as he fought the impulse to lean down to kiss her, before she pushed up and captured his lips, pressing her body against him, her voice the siren's song that shipwrecked him against the rocks.

"Please don't stop me," Sirius finally gave in and brought his lips to hers.

Marlene nearly melted into him, sighing softly and wrapping her arms around his neck as she parted her lips. Sirius let his hands roam as she brought her fingers to grip in his hair. Her breath catching and her body arching into him was enough to drive him mad, but then she undid the belt that held her rapier and wand at her waist and pulled him over her on his bed.

"I know this can't be anything," she whispered as he indulged himself with kissing her perfect neck. "But I have to tell you, I'm in love with you."

Sirius felt his smile spread over her neck before he kissed his way up to look at her.

"I'm in love with you too."

Marlene's smile was blinding and Sirius couldn't help but kiss her again.

"We'll figure something out," he assured her between kisses.

Marlene stopped kissing him and he pulled back to see her smile had gone just a touch dim. "Sirius, you know we can't."

He stared down at her with confusion, "We can't marry, but that doesn't mean we can't be happy."

She looked unconvinced and Sirius frowned.

"Our oaths say nothing about not being allowed to love another person," he smirked at her before leaning down to kiss behind her ear and whisper, "or sharing their bed."

The way her body curved up into him derailed what he'd been planning to say next and he kissed her further. But her voice seemed to pull him back to the topic.

"What about James and Lily?"

"They'll be thrilled for us," he smirked when he found one of her daggers, and carefully relieved her of it, setting it next to her rapier and wand.

"Sirius," she went to protest further, but Sirius wasn't having it.

"Marlene," he pushed himself up to hover over her. "On my oath, I will love no other woman but you. Regardless of these distracting details that we will have time to sort out soon enough, you are who I want to be with, in whatever capacity we can manage."

Marlene's eyes were huge as she stared up at him, but her smile was almost shy and he nearly cut off her words to kiss her again.

"On my oath, Sirius, I will love no other man but you. I want to be with you, in whatever capacity we can manage."

Sirius felt his chest tighten at her words, and then laughed when she grabbed her wand and locked James and Lily in James' room.

"They'll be fine," she murmured as she began untucking his shirt, catching one of his daggers before it fell. "Please don't stop us."