Author's Note: Sorry you haven't heard from me. I was quite ill and unable to type for several weeks. I am able to write again, so expect regular updates. Thank you for reading and reviewing, MNF

Chapter 22:

Birthday

Friday, May 26, 2000

Grimmauld Place

"Junie, where are you, Luv?" Sirius called out after arriving home.

"I'm in the orangery," she answered. He'd had to work much later than she today, so while he toiled away in his Ministry office, she'd been able to relax in the warmth of the glass room and the odd sunny spring afternoon in London. She was grading more essays from her third- and fourth-year students, wishing they had better language skills. She could tell which essays were written by students who had attended Muggle primary schools or who had superior home-schooling and which students had barely been educated before arriving at Hogwarts. Honestly, spelling and use of the English language were such basic stills any student needed. The bill proposing mandatory magical primary schooling was nearly complete. She knew they'd have push-back, but for the sake of the future of wizarding kind, children needed better educations.

"Ah, soaking up the sunshine?" Sirius said as he sat down on the foot of the chaise Junie was seated upon. This was the first time in three days he was able to leave before nine pm.

Sirius liked that his fiancée was wearing a shorter skirt which showed off more of her legs. Said legs were smooth, something else he liked. He started to rub up and down her calf, going just a bit higher each time, until he was also caressing her thigh, under the skirt of her dress, with each pass.

"I grew up across the street from a beach," Junie said with a broad smile. "I am definitely a sun-worshipper." She put the wicker tray she'd been using as a desk off to the side and then leaned over and grabbed Sirius' tie to pull him closer to her. He didn't need much prompting to half sit, half lay on top of her.

"Maybe we should head to Sunderland this weekend?" he suggested between kisses to her neck and into her cleavage. "We have rooms to christen there too." So far, Sirius and Junie had been making their way around the house, making love in as many different rooms as possible. Every room on the second floor had been 'broken in.' They were working their way down to street level.

"We can't go to Sunderland; tomorrow is Rosie's seventeenth birthday celebration," Junie reminded him, and Sirius looked abashed. Not that they couldn't travel to the Potters from her house, she just knew they'd be more easily distracted away from Minsey and her discreet reminders of the time.

"How did I forget that?" he'd stopped his careful and complete kissing of the skin the scooped neckline of her dress revealed.

"You've been working hard," she said gently, her hand brushing the hair away from his eyes. "Is the revamped sexual harassment legislation finished?" Since Lily's revelations, Sirius and James rewrote the Wizengamot laws and brought them more in line with what the Muggle laws were. Unfortunately, several purebloods were against the stiffening of penalties for such actions. The way Junie, Lily, and Marlene saw it, the old coots didn't want to get caught pinching bottoms or making lewd comments, which they continued to participate in, regardless of how many times modern women told them to stop it. They were a small minority, however, and it really was time for such behaviour to end.

"It is," Sirius said. "It will be the first thing we take up on Monday." Sirius was sure the Wizengamot would pass the new legislation, especially after they heard the tearful story of Lily Potter. Sirius' hand slipped under Junie's skirt again, and he kissed her languidly. After a few minutes of intense snogging where his suit coat and waistcoat had both been discarded, Sirius suddenly stopped what he was doing and looked at his fiancée.

"I've tentatively put the Education Reform Bill on the docket for June twenty-first. I know Hogwarts is still in session, but you're done teaching, correct?"

"I am," Junie answered, her fingers still playing with Sirius' hair. "The students leave that Friday for home. They then have nine weeks off; I have seven."

"Excellent," he said. "I've decided the Wizengamot will be in recess for July."

"Oh, that's very good," Junie said, stopping playing with the hairs on the centre of his chest. His shirt only had two of the bottom buttons still done up. "I have something I'd like to discuss with you." Sirius turned his face to hers. "Would you want to marry me on June twenty-fifth? I can pull together a wedding in a month."

"Seriously? Yes, Junie, I would love to marry you on June twenty-fifth. Where?"

"Ah, now that is the only question I've had. Obviously, we will need somewhere large enough to accommodate all the people you'll need to invite. I was wondering if Hogwarts would work. We could do everything in the Great Hall or get married outside and then have the reception indoors or vice versa. I thought we could also have a Muggle-friendly reception at Pinnacle Point."

"I would love to be married at Hogwarts," Sirius said before kissing her passionately. "Have you figured everything else out too? Flowers, dresses, colour schemes?"

"How do you know there will be a colour scheme?"

"Harry and Ginny married last summer, remember? Harry would escape here when Ginny was barmy with planning. Then again, she had Molly involved, and while I love my cousin, she can be –"

"Barmy-inducing. I remember. Yes, I have done much of the planning, but I haven't asked anyone outside of Lily and Marley, and Marley is sworn to secrecy, or I will hex her painfully. I needed to confirm with you how many groomsmen you wanted. For the most part, I think I know, and everyone matches up well enough, but I want to hear what you're thinking."

"Well, James has to be the best man, although just like when he was married, I expect Remus will share in the duties. James and I shared them when he was married too, although I wasn't Remus' best man. Peter and then I'd like to have my godsons involved if I can."

"Perfectly, I want Lily and Marley, obviously, and then Dorothy, Ginny, and Rosie. I don't think Rosie will be thrilled at being paired with George, but I'll buy her a fabulous dress to make up for it. What do you think about using yellow as a colour? Gryffindor is gold, and Hufflepuff is yellow, so I figure if I choose a golden yellow hue, we're making a good compromise. I'd like to use blue too since you're so partial to me being in blue, and I love the way it brings out your eyes."

"It's all perfect. Can you get a dress in time? I want you to look like the viscountess you're about to become," Sirius said quietly, then gently kissing her.

"I've actually already had one started," Junie confessed. "I was out with Lily and Marley shopping in London in April, and we were by a bridal boutique, and the dress was in the window, and…I get to try it on next week. I'm learning from you as I made it worth their while to accommodate my timeline." Sirius laughed at her pronouncement. "Now, it's a Muggle wedding dress. You don't think we need to wear dress robes, do you?"

"No, darling, I don't think we do. I can't stand them, so I'd much rather be in a Muggle morning suit."

"Excellent. I know getting you, and the gents' new suits won't entail quite so much. Lily, Marlene and Dorothy's dresses have also been ordered. I have a style for Ginny and Rosie too, so I can pop over tomorrow morning and order their dresses. I'll also go over and see Dorothy about getting the flowers ordered."

"What would you have done if I said I wanted to wait?" Sirius asked with mock scorn.

"Probably have shrunk all of the dresses and kept them in the closet at Sunderland," she replied. "However, since you were ready to marry me in February, I wasn't worried about it. I have already checked with Minerva, and she's fine with having the wedding there if she can officiate. I told her that we'd agreed."

"Do I need to do anything for our wedding?" Sirius asked happily.

"Would you like to plan our wedding trip?"

"That I can do, and you may not complain about how much money I spend."

"I promise I won't. I can't wait. We can take all of July away from our regular lives and just be with each other," Junie said dreamily.

"I love you so much," Sirius said before kissing her deeply. They christened the orangery before supper. While they were dressing, Sirius suggested he Floo call his best friends and ask them to stand with him on his wedding day. Junie shook her head and put a hand on his chest.

"Monday, we can ask everyone together, but why don't we let Rosie have her weekend?"

"You're not only brilliant, but you're kind. Do I need to buy her a gift? I didn't even think to ask you.'

"I have two gifts for her; one is sentimental, the other one is fun and something she's wanted for years. While we can both sign the cards for her, I think you should buy her a motorcycle jacket. She wants to take a ride on one of your bikes quite badly."

"I can do that," he said happily. Just then, Minsey popped in to tell them she'd put dinner up in the private dining room, and the pair Disapparated to enjoy the delicious seafood stew she'd created.

Later that night, as the clock neared midnight, Junie and Sirius were awake and waiting. Rosie would get her name the moment her birthday began. Junie knew the girl would either be delighted or distraught and as much as Lily would want to be the person there to comfort her daughter, Junie was worried Rosie would rather it be her godmother. She remembered what it was like to be sixteen and think your mother was lame; Rosie had a severe case of 'parental lameness' when it came to James and Lily.

"You're worried, aren't you?" Sirius asked.

"This is the first of the kids to go through this," she said gently. "We all knew that Harry and Ginny had been matched since birth, so there wasn't any surprise on his or her seventeenth birthdays; this will be something new. I have a feeling it won't be Miles Tolbert; I just can't see them making it last forever."

"The same could have been said about us," Sirius said, and Junie half-shrugged, half-nodded in agreement.

"Yes, but we weren't matched when we were seventeen because we were so different."

"To hear the High Mages talk about it, we weren't matched then for fear you wouldn't accept the prophecy and because I was too immature. Theoretically, we are supposed to be more accepting now due to your being a direct descendant of the first Druid, and I'm of the last pure bloodline," he reminded her in a neutral tone.

"Please don't pull that hogwash with me again," she said, scoffing. "I don't believe in mystical bindings and pairings. I have a hard enough time with a semi-sentient mass of magic deciding who should be with whom. If it wasn't for knowing how well our friends' marriages worked out, I wouldn't have ever agreed to meet you on my birthday."

"I'm glad you did," he said. They were sharing the small sofa in the library. Should Rosie come through the Floo downstairs, they would hear her. They ostensibly were reading while waiting for the day to end; really, they were snogging like teenagers. If it wasn't for their waiting for midnight, the pair would have gone to bed long ago.

Just then, the clock began to chime midnight, and Junie held her breath. The pair turned to look at the large clock which hung on the wall.

One minute passed.

Two minutes passed.

At two and half minutes, footsteps echoed up the staircase. "Auntie Junie!"

"We're in the library on the first floor," she called out, and soon the girl was in the room with them. Junie had stood, and Rosie flew into her godmother's arms. She was crying, somewhat hysterically. Junie held her while Sirius came over and placed his hand on her back and drew soothing circles. When Rosie had begun to calm down, Junie spoke to her in hushed tones. "What happened?"

"It isn't Miles," Junie hiccupped quietly. "It's someone old."

"How old, sweetheart?" Junie hadn't ever heard of someone being matched with anyone more than a few years older or younger than themselves. Of course, people fell in love with folks all the time, which were ten, fifteen, or twenty years different in age.

"He was born in nineteen-seventy-eight," Rosie bawled. That meant the seventeen-year-old Rosie would be dating a twenty-two-year-old. Five years wasn't too bad.

"Sweetheart, it's only five years," Junie tried to make it sound better, but she knew why her goddaughter was upset.

"Do you know who he is?" Sirius asked.

"I do," Rosie said through her tears. "It's Ginny's older brother, Fred." Sirius took one look at Junie and then left. He thought he might need to go restrain his best mate. For five years, Fred would have known that James' daughter's name was on his heart and never thought to warn the man.