I decided to post a little early in honor of Halloween. Let me know how I'm doing!

The rest of the week passed in a hectic blur as Sage tried to catch up with the work she missed and ignore the rumors that seemed to get wilder and wilder. Finally, blissfully, it was Saturday and Sage only had one essay from Slughorn left. Alice had darted off somewhere early that morning, stating that she wanted to spend the day with Frank, so the other three girls left for the Great Hall chattering. They had just settled into their seats as James, Remus, and Peter ambled into the Hall and plopped down beside them. For the past week, the girls had been sitting with James, Remus, and Peter at mealtimes, sometimes joined by Lily.

It seemed that Lily and James were officially an item. Contrary to Sage's expectations, James had not littered the school with flyers announcing the fact, but he was very liberal with the PDA when she was around. He was always finding reasons to touch her, look at her, kiss her. And while Peter bemoaned these displays, Sage didn't mind. In Sage's opinion, Lily proved herself to be worthy of James' affection the night of the attack.

Sage, on the other hand, found herself in the same position romantically as she had been the past six years: affection-less, boyfriend-less, and utterly disappointed. It wasn't that she wanted to continue things with Gideon; she was glad to be rid of him. As nice as he had seemed, he was obviously a jealous berk and she had no patience for that. But watching James with Lily and Alice with Frank, Sage felt lonely.

Even Kylie and Remus seemed to be closer, though Remus was moving at a snail's pace from what Kylie said. He was still holding back and the girls couldn't figure out why. But Kylie was intent in being understanding, stating that he didn't owe her anything and she would be patient until he was comfortable. And while Sage felt a stab in annoyance with Remus (after all, Kylie was her best friend and she, Sage, wanted the world for her friends), she knew it was the best thing for Remus.

But aside from her loneliness, or maybe because of it, Sage found herself thinking of Sirius quite a bit. She could still feel his plump lips on her cheek, his solid chest against hers, his arms around her. And she just didn't know what to think of it. Could it be the "rebound phase", as Marlene had talked about for years? Surely it couldn't be. After all, as she told Gideon, they only went on one date.

Whatever it was, Sage needed to sort out her feelings, and quickly. Sirius was coming back to Hogwarts today. He sent a letter with the family owl, Aragorn (Sage was allowed to name him), last night stating that he was going out of his mind with boredom and was finally given the okay to come back by the healers from St. Mungos. Sage was excited to see him but she had nothing on James, who was practically bouncing in his seat.

"Look," Sage snarled as James' elbow knocked into hers, spilling pumpkin juice over the table, "I know you're excited that your boyfriend is coming back, but for the love of all things holy, you need to calm down."

James turned to her and grinned. "Jealous?"

"Of your love affair with Sirius? I'm just beside myself with envy," she deadpanned, wiping the juice up with a napkin.

"Oh please, if I'm dating anyone, it's Remus." Sage's stomach flipped at Sirius' voice as Remus choked on his coffee. She whirled around to see him, standing there looking as healthy as an ox and grinning, and couldn't help smiling up at him.

"Pardon?" Remus said gruffly, having avoided asphyxiation by caffeine, helped by a few solid smacks on the back from Kylie.

"I think it's time we admit our love affair, Moony," Sirius said, plopping down on the other side of Sage.

"It really does answer so many questions," Sage continued, ignoring the fluttering of her stomach at Sirius' proximity and tucking into her cereal.

"Like what?" Remus hollered, causing the group to erupt in laughter.

"Oh Remmy, you silly, silly boy," Sirius chimed in an affected voice.

"How about we never ever call him Remmy again?" Sage asked, scrunching her nose in disgust.

"Agreed," Remus grumbled.

"So, Sirius, how are you feeling?" Marlene asked, leaning across the table eagerly, evidently latching on to the first opportunity to speak to him. Sirius shrugged and began spooning eggs onto his plate.

"Right as rain," he said indifferently.

"Well, if you need help studying or anything, let me know." Sage almost groaned at her eagerness. Sirius shrugged and there was a tension around the table that everyone felt. Sage searched for something, anything, to break the haze and found it in a ketchup bottle.

"What the hell are you doing to those poor eggs?" She yelped, watching Sirius pour an obscene amount onto his plate.

"What? It's good! Here, try it." He loaded a fork with the concoction and held it in an offering. For a moment, Sage imagined herself leaning in and letting him feed her that bite, maybe followed by a peck on the lips to add a bit of sweetness to it. Instead, feeling multiple sets of eyes on her, she pushed it away, laughing.

"Not on your life." He shrugged and directed the fork to his lips. As she looked away, she saw Marlene staring at her with narrowed eyes. Sage diverted her gaze as the conversation turned to homework.

"All of the assignments you missed are on your bedside cabinet. You can borrow my notes if you'd like," Remus told Sirius.

"Oh, what a great welcome back present," Sirius replied sarcastically. "Could have done with some chocolate instead."

"If it's something sweet you want, I can help you out," Marlene cut in. Sage exchanged an exasperated glance with Kylie as the awkwardness fell over the table once again.

"I think we should start in on that antidote essay for Slughorn," Kylie said quickly, pushing her half-eaten omelet aside.

"Suppose you're right," Sage agreed and sucked down the last of her cereal before turning to Marlene. "C'mon Mar, the sooner we get it over with, the sooner we can enjoy the weekend."

"Oh, but—" Marlene started.

"Let's go," Kylie said sternly and Marlene knew better than to argue. The girls waved their goodbyes and left the Hall quickly, making their way to the Gryffindor common room.

"Do either one of you want to explain why we had to leave as soon as Sirius got there?" Marlene grumbled, folding her arms over her chest. Kylie and Sage glanced at each other again.

"Well, you were coming on a bit strong and it was making things a little awkward," Sage admitted.

"It's called flirting," Marlene said with an edge in her tone.

"Right, well, he wasn't really…" Kylie trailed off, evidently looking for the right word. "Receptive."

"Oh, what would you two know about it?" Marlene snapped. "Neither of you have enough experience to fill a bag." Sage and Kylie stopped walking and looked at her, gobsmacked. "Well, you don't!" She growled defensively, whirling on them.

"You don't need experience to see that he was uncomfortable!" Sage said, getting angry.

"Oh, like you know him so well?" Marlene challenged.

"You don't need to know him well to see how uncomfortable he was, Mar," Kylie said, voice calm despite the fact she was positively vibrating with agitation.

"Maybe you should lay off for a while. This ultra-aggressive approach isn't working," Sage continued and Marlene's eyes narrowed into slits.

"Maybe you're just feeling threatened. Maybe you want to eliminate the competition."

"Competition? What in the bloody hell are you talking about?" Sage felt bile climbing up her throat at the accusation.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact you're hanging around him like a lost puppy? I tell you I fancy him and suddenly, you're spending so much time with him 'studying'." Marlene said with an edge of hysteria, making quotation marks with her fingers.

"Marlene, you know why I started studying with him. I wanted to get my grades up to scratch. And for your information, I've been trying to talk you up to him but he's not interested. I'm sorry, but he's not," Sage said, making a conscious effort to keep her voice from raising. "And I really don't like it when my friends are uncomfortable. I would do the same for you."

"Whatever. I'm going to the library, I don't want to be around either of you right now." And with that, she stomped off. Sage turned to Kylie, who was staring at Marlene's retreating back.

"What the hell just happened?"

"I don't know," Kylie said, chewing on her bottom lip. "I knew she was jealous that you spend so much time with him but I didn't think…" She trailed off.

"Didn't think what?" Sage prompted.

"I didn't think she thought you were trying to steal him away from her."

"Steal him away? He's not an object, he's a person who is perfectly capable of making his own decisions."

"Well yes, but you know Mar. She's not used to being denied." Sage ran a hand through her hair roughly.

"This is so stupid. There's nothing going on between us."

"Isn't there? I mean you two have been spending a lot of time together and you do seem more comfortable around each other." Kylie looked around at the growing crowd of students leaving breakfast. "C'mon, let's take a walk."

"We lived together during the holidays, of course we're more comfortable around each other. And it's not like we were exactly frosty to begin with," Sage grumbled, following Kylie through the entrance hall and out into the grounds.

"True. But what about him crashing your date?"

"He was bored and said he didn't trust Gideon. I mean, it's the same stupidity that made them decide to scare off any guys that might like me. Something about knowing how awful guys are at this age."

"Wait, what? How do you know that?" Kylie asked as they headed towards the lake. Sage realized that she hadn't told Kylie what happened that night and began retelling the story. By the time she was finished, they had settled on the bank of the lake and were tossing stones into the water idly.

"So he took you on a date?" Kylie asked, staring into middle distance.

"A platonic date. A test date, I guess, so I know what to expect from a lad on a real date," Sage explained, staring in the same direction.

"That sounds like a feeble excuse." Sage's head whipped around.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's weird, right? He says he doesn't trust boys with you but then takes you out on a proper date, but says it's not actually a proper date and that he just wants you to know what to expect." Sage sighed and bit her lip as Kylie finished, debating on her next words.

"There's something else." Kylie's eyebrows shot up as she turned to Sage. "The night before I came back to Hogwarts, we were sitting on the balcony with James and talking about the attack. They were talking about retaliation and we got into a row and I asked them to let it go, for me. And when Sirius looked at me, his eyes were full of some darkness, scary almost. Like he was thinking horrible thoughts and it just wasn't him. But when he looked at me, it was like he fought his way back up and suddenly, he was Sirius again. And then James went inside and he hugged me. But it wasn't a completely platonic hug. It was more of us holding each other. And then he pulled back and pecked my cheek and…" Sage trailed off.

"And?" Kylie prompted quietly.

"And I can't stop thinking about it. Part of me wishes I had kissed him, actually kissed him." Kylie let out a long breath.

"Shit."

"Yeah."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know." Sage bit the inside of her cheek and pulled her knees to her chest, staring at the lake. After a few moments of silence, she looked back at Kylie with her cheek on her knees. "What do you think I should do?"

"I think that you should go for it."

"What about Marlene?" Kylie let out a long breath.

"Mar will get over it, I think. Most of what's got her going is the fact that he's not interested. But she'll see that you two really like each other and that you're happy, because you are with him, even now. Either that or she'll have a shit fit. But that's her decision, she's responsible for her own happiness and you're responsible for yours."

"What about James?" Kylie let out a surprised laugh.

"He'll probably start planning your wedding so Sirius can finally be a part of the family, legally."

"Sirius Potter," Sage laughed. "It has a nice ring to it." The two sat in silence for a few minutes before Kylie hopped up.

"C'mon, Slughorn's essay won't write itself."