Joule belongs to me! Nothing else! So thanks for the reviews so far, guys; they're really encouraging. Feel free to whisper, shout, scream, mutter, murmur, yell, holler, snicker, or just comment on anything you find interesting, odd, strange, horrible, lovely, or weird. The freedom of speech is highly enforced. Thanks and enjoy!

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It was ten.

Ten o'clock in the morning precisely. And I was waiting by the gate to Hogsmeade patiently. In a regular-clothed Joule-approved sweater and jeans set. Jittering beyond belief.

Merlin, help me.

It was my date with Leo. Leo Carmichael, in case you happened to forget, and in any case, I wasn't forgetting anything. I was just trying to appear nonchalant.

I mean, who wants to be seen as the stumbly, jittery, awkward, odd fool that you really are? Seriously? We all want to look cool, calm, and collected, nothing but the epitome of epic.

Smooth. Serious. Intense.

Unfortunately for me, that resulted in me bouncing nondiscreetly on my toes, gnawing my lip, and twiddling my thumbs. Wildly. I didn't know how to feel.

Nervousness for the date.

Guilt for what I did to Sirius.

Anxiety about what I'd say and not come across as insane. Again.

Super guilt-tripping for Sirius.

Worried if Leo turned out to be a total jerk.

Guilt for a particular Black again…

Oh, and did I mention excitement for LILY AND JAMES'S DATE?

No, I guess not. Sorry, that was a little much, but this day really should be commemorated for their first real forced and hopefully natural interaction that will turn out to be the beginning for so much more due to a certain epic and brilliant mutual friend.

Yes, I know. So humble, please hold the applause, etc, etc.

After I'd cheerfully (not really) announced to Lily that our deal had been completed on my side, she had reluctantly (spontaneously) raced after James to mutter probably the most nonchalant (gritted out of her teeth) invitation for an exclusive day at Hogsmeade with him, most commonly known as a 'date.' Apparently, he'd been floored, drooled a little, and after a couple lovestruck looks, had accepted Lily's offer with a glee unknown to Wizarding kind.

I really can't report for sure; I had to obtain all this information from Lily firsthand, since she'd made the offer in an unobtrusive corner in the Gryffindor so no one else could witness the momentous event. Oh, but everyone had heard about it later…via James's screams of joy of the Astronomy Tower.

He's subtle, that one.

Anyways…Sirius was still mad at me. Okay, it's been one day since our argument.

One day.

But it feels like eternity. Cliché. I know. I'm sick of them too. They're like a disease that you can't help but catch.

But the fact was that we've never really fought with one another; we've just annoyed each other sometimes to disbelief, but we got over it relatively quickly. But it's been a whole 24 hours, and we haven't spoken.

He's currently giving me the cold shoulder, a particular technique that I've noticed he uses for when he's angry beyond belief, courtesy of years of experience. Normally, ordinary anger requires only verbal mockery and slight snubbing, but full-out, intense, simmering Sirius anger brings the temperature of a room down several degrees. It makes everyone in the vicinity uncomfortable.

Even me, his own pod person, was uncomfortable. I wanted it to be over, but my pride wouldn't allow it, seeing as I'd have to explain the whole situation to him.

So I might as well get this date over with.

Which leads me back the beginning.

Waiting for Leo. It was 10:07 AM now. He was late, Leo was, and I was personally starting to get annoyed. I'd dissed Sirius for a tardy bum; how idiotic was I? Sirius and I would've been halfway to Zonko's by now.

I cursed myself internally for being so comparative. Leo wasn't Sirius. Leo was…

Leo.

Was it silly to realize just now that his first name was only three letters long? Three letters? Seriously, three letters defining your very existence? How…sad.

I, personally, needed at least a healthy five, as could James, Remus, and Peter. Lily could somehow make it work with four. Sirius, of course, was high maintenance and demanded an extravagant six. But three…

Three was so small. So simple. I could only hope that Leo knew what to do with them.

"I am so sorry."

Startled, I looked up from where I'd been kicking a pile of innocent pebbles pensively to face an out of breath Leo, looking very harried and puffing every other second. Plus, Leo appeared disheveled and partly crazed, a side I'd never seen of him before.

Opportunities…

"What?" I waved my hand nonchalantly (not really). "No, you're fine. I've only been here a few minutes anyways."

Seven minutes to be exact. Seven minutes stuck in my head wondering why exactly I'm here. Trying to justify my decisions to myself; it's very tiring, actually.

Ah, contradicting thoughts and actions. How fun.

"No, it's not." Leo's big brown eyes got wide. "I'm really so sorry, Quidditch practice went over and Coach wouldn't let us go until we got this one maneuver right, and-"

"Wait." I held up my hand, stopping him from saying anymore. "Maneuver? Quidditch? Please tell me more."

Quidditch I could deal with. I knew how to talk about that sport, alright.

I suppose my intense passion was somehow apparent in my expression, because Leo's face immediately broke into a big smile, realizing he was in the clear due to a certain sport being his alibi. Good for him; somehow he came out of this depressingly-moody-Joule-funk scot-free.

"Well," he smiled brightly, his blonde hair mimicking a miniature sun atop his noggin. "I suppose I can tell you what we've been working on lately, although I'm not really supposed to divulge any secrets to anyone outside the team."

Cue the teasing, shifty look from Ravenclaw #1.

Oh, please…

"Tell me everything." I insisted, linking arms with him, and I felt a certain camaraderie sprout between us mixed with…something else. Something I couldn't define. Deception, perhaps?

Oh, well. It was inconsequential.

So, there we went, off into the distance of Hogsmeade to have our official date.

How…quaint.

I vowed that I would make no more comparisons in my head, and that I'd remain optimistic. After all, I needed to give Leo a chance.

Everyone deserved a chance, right?

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I was wrong.

So. Absolutely. Wrong.

Leo's chance was slowly dwindling into a shriveled sprig of an opportunity; something I realized as we sat in Madame Puddifoot's for the third straight hour, still discussing Quidditch tactics as well as history.

Seriously. Three hours. Nonstop.

You tell me how long you can discuss the effects of a Chaser's tailwind until the Snitch's untimely capture during hurricane-like weather.

Welcome to my life.

I considered faking a phone call to get out of the most boring date in the world when I remembered that I was in the Wizarding World and that cell phones didn't exist. Okay, they did, but not that many wizards and witches used them. And I didn't have one at this second.

Of course, I didn't. Why would I have a logical item on me?

Why wouldn't I have considered an exit strategy SOS to Lily via phone?

Because I was an idiot. And an optimist. And because electronics couldn't work in Hogwarts.

Why?

Granted, I loved Quidditch, but it was supposed to be a starter conversation topic, not the topic of the never-ending date. I thought pensively for a second that the next time I'd hear him say 'Quaffle,' I'd fake a stomach ache to escape but…

Actually, there was no but…that was my plan. An actual, desperate, horrible plan.

Merlin, I was one of those people now. Bailing on the first date, how sad.

The only plus side to this date so far was that I now knew every Ravenclaw strategy to Quidditch ever known possible. All those secrets acquired over the years by those wise eagles…gone. Leo had divulged beyond belief.

Le gasp. Turns out maybe those 'Claws aren't so wise, are they?

But, anyways….back to the present.

"So then basically," Leo gestured wildly, innocently oblivious to my infinite expression of indifference or just plain rude, "Every time a goal is made by the Chasers, the follow-up whistle, as well as wind from the impact of the Quaffle—"

Bam. Buzzword. Bail time.

"Ugh." I feigned a hopefully repulsive, pained look, making sure to furrow my brows deeply. "Uh, Leo, I actually don't feel too well right now. My stomach didn't really like those, um, crumpets we had earlier, so I'll just—"

I didn't even get to finish my lame excuse.

Bugger.

"Oh, sure!" Leo's eyes widened in a concerned manner, making me hate their brown depths for deceiving me. "No, feel free to use the loo; I didn't mean to talk so long." He looked to me in a confiding manner. "My mum keeps saying that I talk so much that I wouldn't even notice if a car drove right into me, but I keep telling her that—"

My turn.

"Heh." I sputtered. "But really, I need to go—"

"No, it's fine—"

"Well, I'll just be—"

"I'll be waiting right here for you, no rush."

I stared at him stupidly, wondering how many times he'd been dropped on his head as a baby. Could I not even finish a complete thought with this guy? How did I not notice this aspect before?

Merlin. I needed better people-judging skills. ASAP.

Already, he was sipping at his petite, idiotic, pink teacup of French Kiss, waiting for me to get up and relieve myself. How annoying…

Without a word but perhaps a regretful smirk, I bounced out of that booth and headed directly towards the heart/cupid/love-covered entrance of Madame Puddifoot's, only glancing once behind me to check if Leo so happened to see where I was going.

Nope. He was still tasting from the strange blend of obnoxious tea that we'd been coerced into buying. Oh yeah, and as for the bill…

I'd pay him back. Someday. Hmm, or better yet, maybe my patience of listening to him yabber on for three hours would be payment enough.

Option, options, options…

So I left, simply strode out the front door of the establishment with a mere puzzled look from the hostess but nothing else. He didn't even notice I was gone.

Amazing.

Date-free, considering it the way to be, I skipped throughout Hogsmeade all by my lonesome (Okay, so I didn't skip, but I had a jaunt in my step, okay?). After a few minutes of sightseeing (more like people-watching) and window-shopping, I considered my next plan of attack, seeing as the rest of my day was now plan-free.

Objective #1: Apologize to Sirius.

It'd been bugging me all day. The need to apologize was killing me, and I needed the perfect plan of attack to carry it out.

Yes, everything was now a military maneuver.

First stop: supplies for a peace offering.

So, after a trip to Zonko's and the obtainment of several packs of Fizzing Whizbees as well as Fanged Frisbees, I now had the objective of locating my suspect to put into my custody.

I'd already peered into The Three Broomsticks, Zonko's, Puddifoot's (obviously), so I scoped out all of Hogsmeade to hunt my elusive best friend down, using all of my resources of inductive and deductive reasoning. Trust me, I was a real Sherlock Holmes, but Sirius was literally nowhere to be found.

Literally. No. Where.

This boy was too sneaky for his own good, and a niggling thought in my mind wondered if he'd stolen James's Invisibility Cloak to hide away in a corner somewhere.

Nah…

Alas, after much consideration and confusion, I figured he'd skipped Hogsmeade all together and was simply moping in bed just to be as un-Sirius-like as humanly possible in order to throw everyone off his trail. Not that I knew why he was covering his trail in the first place…but what did I know?

So that's why I was standing at the top of the staircase to the Gryffindor 7th years' boys' dormitory, hand poised on the doorknob, ready for action.

Okay, so I was also reveling that I wasn't sent reeling down the slippery staircase too, but that's moot point. Moot as in a pair of goose moose shoes. Try saying that ten times fast.

Moot point.

I turned the knob and entered the lair.

Now, as frightening as the boys' dormitory might be to some, it wasn't all that bad. Sure, there were socks, underwear, and everything flung everywhere, but it was homey. Kind of in an adorable hobo-like manner. Like a puppy found in a dumpster. Just like that.

Besides the messy appearance, the observation that struck me as most important was the bundled lump on one of the four-poster beds, curtains clearly open and forgotten to be closed. The pile of messy robes on the floor around it verified it as Sirius Orion Black's official bed.

Bingo.

I cleared my throat to start the conversation, as well as to alert him that there was a stranger in his bedroom watching him sleep or whatever he was doing underneath the covers. It seemed polite.

"Go away, Remus." A voice groaned from the red and gold blanketed abyss. "I didn't need your sodding advice yesterday, and I don't need your sodding advice now. Bugger off."

"Ahem." I slightly coughed again, making sure to make it more feminine. "I'm not Remus."

Sirius's head shot out of the covers at record speed, leaving me to witness a bedhead, rumpled, and slightly bewildered Sirius Black. Instantly, though, the game face was on, and he was warily raking his gaze over me.

"Oh." He said monotone. "Look who it is."

I scratched my nose.

I didn't know how to do this major fight apology stuff! Gah! Could anyone loan me a Book for Dummies?

"Hi." I said, wishing for my instruction manual. I didn't know what else to say. Or how to start, no less.

Sirius merely raised an elegant Black eyebrow at me, his face still blank. Oh, I was going to get any help from him alright. He was going to make me spit this out all by myself like a big girl.

Yay.

"So…" I started. "I was stupid."

Again, I received an Oscar-award-winning look of complete indifference and irritation from the boy on the bed while I stood awkwardly clutching for words in the doorway.

Time to start for real now.

"Look, I know I was stupid. I said and did some stupid things yesterday that I didn't mean, and that was even stupider." I blathered, probably looking like a fish to get it out. "But the stupidest thing that I did was comparing you to your family, and I know that that was wrong and that it's completely not true, but I said it anyway, and I'm really sorry and I just wanted to apologize since the moment I said it and it's practically been the only thing I've been thinking about all day seeing as my date was boring and stupid as shit, but I'm manning up to you now to say it."

I took a deep breath. "So, yeah. Sorry."

An amused twitch of Sirius's lips alerted me to the fact that I was forgiven. "Just exactly how long did you prepare to give me that speech, Jou-jou?"

I shook my head. "None. It was more of a stream of consciousness than anything. Anything pre-made probably would've been forgotten in the first ten seconds."

"Understandable." He snorted, trying to smooth his black hair with one hand.

"Yeah…" An awkward silence descended, which I immediately wanted to break. "So can we be friends again?"

My voice came out all wrong. The confident, joking tone had somehow morphed into a tinny, uncertain almost whisper. How embarrassing. Darn you vocal chords, darn you!

"Joule," Sirius's gray eyes softened at the sight of me. "We never stop being friends, not even when we fight, love. Nothing breaks us."

"I know that." I tried for my confident voice again. "It's just that this time was different. I didn't know what to expect, much less how to act. This wasn't like the time when you put toothpaste in my hairbrush or anything. It was different."

And it had been different, more intense somehow. I wanted him to get the importance, the severity of what I was saying.

"I know, and I wish it wasn't." Sirius said, grimacing. "C'mere, you idiot."

Mindlessly from all the tension in the room, I ran and threw myself into a running jump, catapulting me straight onto a surprised Sirius. Really, he shouldn't be surprised after this long.

Then again, maybe this wasn't such a good idea in the first place.

Both of us grunted, our limbs jumbled together from my odd leap, and suddenly after breathing in a little bit of my own hair, I found myself smack dab on top of Sirius, straddling him in fact. I gazed down at him to see his own crystal clear face just a few inches below mine. So close.

So close I could see the stubble on his chin. So close I could count his eyelashes. So close I could see his gray eyes dilating wider and wider that I could see a small reflection of myself inside of them.

"Oops." I whispered, still staring down at him and currently unable to deal with the unnamable feeling that fluttered in my stomach stronger than ever. It wouldn't let me budge an inch off of him. It seemed to like the feeling of our bodies pressed against one another.

Hm.

Sirius brushed a piece of hair that had fallen into my eyes back behind my ear. "Jou-jou, you know, sometimes you really are an idiot."

I squinted at him. "Excuse me?"

"Jumping on me? Seriously? You know, if you wanted to get in my pants that desperately, you could've asked."

I shot him a red-hot glare. "You sure know how to ruin a moment, Siri. And by the way, your pervy comments are getting old."

"I'm not the one who just launched themselves at me, which says the contrary to both of those accusations." He smirked, looking very smug. "Now can we please rise to vertical positions?"

"Nope." I said cheerfully, laying my head on his chest. "I'm going to listen to your heart beat for the next five minutes just because of that comment."

And listen I did. It was a rhythmic thump-thump that resounded through his entire warm chest, making me very aware that Sirius Black was alive and well. Although it was starting to pick up tempo…

"Joule, really." Sirius shifted underneath me uncomfortably. "As much as I aspire to understand your odd tendencies, love, I'd very much like it if you'd kindly get off."

"Nope."

"Joule."

"No sir."

"Jou-jou."

"No."

"I'm not a horse, love. You can't just get on whenever the mood strikes you."

"Wow, that was unintentionally dirty. And no."

Sirius was warm, comfy, and smelled very agreeable to my nostrils. I didn't want to get off of him, nor did the tingles that raced all over me. Besides, I was tired after all the fake nodding I had to do with Leo.

Sighing, Sirius seemed to accept his fate as a body pillow for the time being, forgetting his defensive act entirely. "You're ridiculous, you know that?" He said to me in a quieter tone.

"I try." I replied, still planted on him.

"So…" He tilted his head so that his breath tickled my ear. "Why was your date complete shit? It was Carmichael, yeah? What'd he do?"

"He didn't do anything." I muttered, rolling my eyes. "Just talked too bloody much and acted like I was his audience or something. He wasn't what I expected."

"He's a prat. I could've told you that."

"Well, we weren't exactly on speaking terms, were we?"

Sirius hummed underneath his breath. "And you never explained that outfit you wore, did you?"

Merlin, not that again.

I sighed wearily. "It was a mistake. Let's just forget it. Actually, let's just erase it from our minds. I'll Obliviate you, and you Obliviate me."

"Oh, no, no, no." Sirius chuckled, and his arms snaked around my waist, chaining us together. "You're not leaving this time, no excuses. Tell me why you came down to breakfast dressed like…that."

"Just say it. Floozy. I dressed like a floozy. I looked like a slutty fairy sheep girl."

"Jou-jou, love, I'm waiting." Sirius drawled. "Stop stalling and get on with it."

Dun, dun, dun, dunnn…

"Well…" I tried to arrange my thoughts into logical order. "You know how Lily and James are on a date right now? And how that it was Lily that asked him out and not vice versa for once?"

"Yeah…" Sirius peered down at me curiously. "And?"

"Didn't you find that very strange?"

"I suppose…" He murmured. "But how does this relate to your sudden makeover the other day? I don't quite see the connection."

I gave a sheepish smile against his chest. "Well, I might've made a deal with Lily that if I got a date for the weekend, she'd have to ask out James to Hogsmeade. That would be a…connection, wouldn't it?"

Sirius was silent for a second, so I craned my head up to see his expression.

"You little minx." He smirked down at me, and his hands tightened around my waist. "You used Carmichael just to get Lily and James together; you were playing him the whole time. Aren't you the tricky one?"

"I was feeling optimistic." I countered back. "I didn't completely just go into it blind; Leo, for all I knew, was a pretty decent guy."

"For all you knew." Sirius mimicked. "For all you knew, he could've been a pedophile, and you wouldn't have known it. He could've been a total pervert, and you wouldn't have had the slightest clue."

I raised my head off of Sirius's chest to look him straight in his deep gray eyes. "I think I have better taste in men than that, thank you very much."

Sirius's lips twitched slowly until they spread into a full grin, looking straight up at me. His eyes glittered, and I knew that his ticking time bomb of a mind was up to something devious.

A blink and a snicker later, we had flipped over, and Sirius was on top of me, pressing our bodies together even tighter than they'd been before, his weight pushing down on me. Above me, his dark eyes bored into me.

"Perhaps." His grin was still apparent, showing very white teeth. "After all, you are friends with me, love, and I consider myself in very good taste."

Oh, game on. I wasn't going to be intimidated by him. Even if the flutters in my stomach were intensifying by the dozen.

"Really?" I arched a brow for dramatic effect. "I'm not too sure of that opinion; some people might consider you to be in very bad taste. You're a bad influence anyway, or so says Professor McGonagall."

"Mmmm." He hummed lowly. "I don't think Minnie knows me as well as you do." Sirius was slowly lowering his face closer to mine, and that was the moment that I started to panic. His face, his eyes, his nose, his lips were coming within inches, within centimeters of my own. His shaggy hair was already a curtain around us, and everything was coming into focus extremely fast.

Too fast.

It wasn't a game anymore.

That was when my own instincts overruled my flutters.

I couldn't handle them, my emotions. I couldn't…deal with them.

I couldn't let Sirius and I cross that line.

"Let's," I whispered as Sirius's nose brushed mine and his lips were breathing little puffs into mine. "Go to Hogsmeade. Can't spend the whole day here, yeah?"

Sirius froze, his gaze brushing over me for some clarity, and I saw his Adam's apple move as he swallowed.

"Yeah." His voice sounded hoarse, his body scooting back away from mine like I was covered in kryptonite. "Sure. Let me go get dressed, and we'll head out."

And just like that, his weight and presence were lifted off me and gone, and I could finally breathe. The only thing was that I wasn't certain if that was a good thing or not.

Merlin. What was happening?

I sure didn't know.