Author's Note: This is a sweet chapter, and we find out a bit more of why Junie doesn't like - or hadn't liked - Sirius from their school days. MNF

Chapter 5:

Dinner

"That was the best Bread Pudding I've ever had," Sirius said, using his napkin to make sure there wasn't any of the warm caramel sauce Junie had provided to drizzle over the delicious concoction clinging to his moustache. "It's a good thing my house-elf doesn't know I'm saying that. She prides herself on feeding me well."

"I promise I won't tell her," Junie said, feeling good that her culinary efforts were appreciated. Cooking for people was one of her favourite things. "What is her name?"

"Minsey," Sirius answered. "My only requirements were that she had a better disposition than my mother's elf and that she cooked well. Thankfully, she is both. She is one of the elves who has allowed themselves to be hired rather than purchased. Getting that law passed was difficult."

"It's a fair law," Junie stated. "No one is making elves take clothes or money, but hopefully in the future more will be hired and therefore treated more fairly. I agree completely with it, although we never had elves. Mum did all of the work herself." Junie was surprised that she was suddenly verklempt over her mum when she'd died years ago. "It's her recipes I used tonight."

"I was so sorry when she passed," Sirius said, moving closer and taking her hand. "I remember the biscuits your mum sent to you at school. It was every week, wasn't it?"

"Yup, she thought I needed a taste of home to do well in school. I think it's just that she missed me, and if she sent biscuits, she knew I would write to her every week."

"You looked so devastated at her funeral," he said softly. "I was worried your dad would collapse, and he was holding you up. I was glad when James went to help you both."

"You were there?"

"I was. I sat in toward the back with Peter. It wasn't like we were close to you, not the way James and Lily or Remus and Marlene were, but you were our friend, and your mother had died." Junie was quiet for a minute.

"I'm sorry I didn't go to the ceremony for either of your parents."

"I didn't go to any ceremonies for my parents. I went to my brother's, although his death was a stupid mistake." It still smarted Sirius that his brother walked into a Hex wall while on an archaeological dig six years ago. What kind of a curse-breaker doesn't check for hexes before entering a tomb?

"His death was shocking. I'm so sorry it happened." They were quiet again, holding hands and being comfortably silent.

"Enough with the heaviness," Sirius said. "Can I tempt you to share another glass of wine with me, maybe in front of the fire?" It would be the first time they didn't have a table between them, and the idea unnerved Junie a bit. Think about what Lily said, she silently reminded herself. You have to take the risk.

"Sure, the mess can wait."

"This is a mess?" Sirius said, standing up, noting that the cooking dishes had already been cleaned and returned to their storage places. The only items on the table were the rest of the pudding, the two dessert plates they'd used, their coffee cups, silverware, and the small pitcher for the caramel sauce.

"No, but I like to keep things clean," she said sheepishly, accepting his hand when he offered it to assist her in standing. Sirius then grabbed the wine bottle and topped off both their glasses before offering his hand once again while they walked.

While Sirius wasn't unfamiliar with dating, at this moment, he felt like a third year taking his first date to The Three Broomsticks on a Hogsmeade Saturday. He hoped Junie didn't find his palm too sweaty. He worried that his lips were chapped, or his breath was terrible from dinner. What if he spilled the wine on her furniture? They sat down, each putting their glass on the old chest she used as a coffee table, and turned to face the other.

Junie couldn't figure out what to do with her hands, as he'd put an arm across the back of the sofa, not as a move to put it around her but instead so he could turn to face her. One of his legs was bent and resting on the cushions. She picked at some non-existent lint on the bottom of her trousers before his hand captured hers again. She mimicked his position and raised her face to greet him.

"I wish you weren't so nervous around me," he confessed.

"I wish I weren't either. If we'd never met, and we were at the beginning of getting to know each other, I'd think things were going well; but we have a bit of baggage that's getting dragged around, and it just makes me feel…guarded."

'That's fair of you to say," Sirius said softly. "I wasn't exactly kind to you, but you have to know that incident with the itching powder had nothing to do with you."

"Oh, I know. It's that it wasn't the first time you did something that made me a laughingstock at school."

"What do you mean?" he asked hesitantly and wondered what else he did that he wasn't able to recall.

"You don't remember what happened our first day of wand work in Charms?"

"Apparently not," he said, surprised. There was a sinking feeling in his gut. "Tell me, please."

"I'm not Muggleborn, but you know I essentially grew up as a Muggle," she began, and he nodded. "It was a Friday, and Professor Flitwick was instructing us on how to do the Wingardium Leviosa, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why we'd want to make a feather lift up and float in the air when we could just pick it up. I made the mistake of asking the question." Junie paused and looked at him. "Before the professor could answer, you yelled out, 'Because we use magic, you dumb Muggle.' James congratulated you on making a good joke, and everyone in both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw was laughing at me. I ran out of the room because I didn't want to cry in front of everybody. I went to Professor Dumbledore and asked him to send me home because being a witch was too hard, but he refused.

"The rest of the girls in my dorm had grown up around magic, and they teased me about my question too. I was pretty miserable and spent the rest of the weekend hiding in different spots around the castle. Lily and Marlene happened upon me, and they wouldn't let me hide anymore. That is how I became friends with them. Marlene might have been a pureblood, but with her dad's issues, she had plenty of experience living in Muggle neighbourhoods. Lily was, well, you know all about Lily. We were sort of the oddballs who straddled the line between magical and Muggle." Junie was quiet when she was done. Sirius squeezed her fingers and then put the forefinger from his other hand under her chin and lifted it so she'd look at him.

"I wish I could say I remembered that, but I was such an idiot up until the fifth year it doesn't surprise me. I'd do that. I am so sorry for making you think you didn't belong. I'm so sorry for the pain that you've carried this long, and I'm sorry that you wanted to leave Hogwarts because I couldn't keep my mouth shut. Please, accept my apology."

"I do. I figured I'd need to since I forgave James like twenty years ago."

"Why did you forgive him then and not me?"

"Because he asked for it, and you never did." It was refreshing for him to be around someone who said what they thought. Few people in his professional life didn't manipulate their statements in some way.

"Thank you for your forgiveness now," he said with complete honesty. "Junie, I need you to answer something for me."

"I'll do my best."

"Do you feel anything other than contempt while we're sitting here?"

"Of course, I do," she answered with a sigh. "I feel confused and excited and worried but hopeful, and I just wish this had happened when we were younger, so I didn't need to –"

Sirius had leaned over and kissed her. She wasn't expecting it, so her mouth was partially open, and it felt a bit awkward. Then it was amazing. She felt like a thousand fireworks were going off under her skin, and where his hand was holding hers, it tingled. She even liked the way his moustache tickled her upper lip and the skin beneath her nose, which she knew was called the philtrum, but then decided it wasn't important what it was called because Sirius Black kissing her felt very good.

Without thinking about it, she moved closer, and their knees were touching, and then his hand was behind her neck, pulling her even closer. He opened his mouth, and his tongue caressed her lip, making her feel a bit dizzy. Instinctually she opened hers too, and his tongue slid in to caress hers. It was entirely too heady but wonderful of an experience, but before too long, she needed to breathe, so she backed away.

"Wow," she mumbled before reaching for her wineglass and downing the half glass which remained.

"Exactly," he answered, only drinking a few sips of his wine. The silence between them seemed to stretch to an uncomfortable length. "Can you say something?"

"Oh, sorry, lost in my head a bit," she answered. "If I knew that snogging was like that, I might have spent more time doing it."

"If I knew snogging you could be like that, I might have not listened to Remus and James and sought you out in school."

"Is that what happened in sixth year?"

"We can discuss that on another day. Right now, I just want to talk about the implications of that kiss. It was amazing."

"I know, it felt like explosions were going off all over me. Is that what a Heart-Bond feels like?" Without thinking about it, they'd moved closer to each other. He was tracing patterns on her arm with one hand and holding her other. She'd placed her hand on his knee.

"Yes. That's exactly what we felt. No wonder most people don't fight the magic." He was quiet while he contemplated her lips. "They're the most beautiful colour of pink, did you know that?"

"No. No one has ever said that to me before." He claimed them again, and the pair spent the rest of the evening like two teenagers who were desperate to find an empty broom cupboard. It wasn't until Junie's chime went off, reminding her she needed to be at Hogwarts in fifteen minutes did either become aware of reality.

"I need to get back to school," she said, waving her wand to take care of the few remaining dishes on the table. "My weeks are crazy with teaching and my needing to be there in the evenings, but you're welcome to visit. You could Floo into my quarters, and no one would be the wiser, except Minerva, but she would probably just take the mickey out of me the next day."

"I'd like to, but with the Wizengamot in session this week, I don't know what my schedule might look like. I'd at least like to talk, even if I can't come up."

"Sure," she said, trying not to feel disappointed. She really wanted to spend more time kissing. What the heck, girl? Are you a hormone-crazed teenager?

"Juniper, don't go into your head. I would much rather spend time with you than deal with politicians. I promise I'll Floo call you tomorrow night." He gathered his cloak and headed toward the fireplace. "This was a brilliant evening, and any time I spend with you is more wonderful than I imagined." He kissed her softly one last time before Flooing to Grimmauld Place.

Junie grabbed the rest of the pudding, knowing she'd be sending it and an exceptionally long letter to Lily in the morning during her free period. She turned out the lights, locked up the door, and Flooed back to Hogwarts. It was eleven-fifty-nine when her feet touched the floor of her quarters.

She wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, but Juniper Meadows admitted to herself she was falling in love.