Author's Note: Heyo! I write mainly stories about The Marauders, so guess what this ones about, lol. Please tell me what you think, I thought of the idea for this last night, and then started writing it today, so, whatever! But, please review, because, believe it or not, your ideas do count! Also, this is not a hate/love thing. I just can't stand those. They're confusing, for me, but that's just me... It's also a big Sirius thing. Sirius is so cool, so mwa ha ha. Oh, and another thing. The first chapter is mainly background information. Then it's going to be when their out of Hogwarts, that sort of thing. So, tell me what you think!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the characters in and way, shape, or form. No copyright infringement is intended, and no money is being made off of this. Oh, and I suppose the title belongs to Poison, but whatever.
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Chapter One: Meet the Crew
Lily Evans woke up slowly in her four-poster bed. She was warm under her large quilt, but knew that it was going to be freezing the moment she stepped out. It was late December of the year 1975. The curtains around her bed weren't all the way closed, so the sunlight flooded her bed, waking her up as it spread over her face. Lily's eyes fluttered open and she sat up. She breathed in and she could smell the fire that the house elves had kept going at night in her bedroom that she shared with two other girls.
Lily slid her curtain open and felt around for her glasses to wear over her bright green eyes. She normally didn't wear them, there was a charm that she normally used so she didn't have to, but it was only temporary, and it was Christmas, for goodness sake. Lily also had naturally curly auburn hair. Lily slipped her slippers onto her feet and got out of her bed. There was a pile of gifts at the foot of it on top of her trunk. She smiled and one of her friends woke up.
"Morning, Maggie," said Lily grinning.
"Hey, Sunshine," Maggie Gold said as she streched and yawned. Lily and Maggie had been best friends for a long time. They had known each other all their lives. Maggie's mum was a Muggle, though, and her dad a wizard. Her mum and dad had agreed on Maggie going to Muggle School until Hogwarts, which is where Maggie and Lily met. Maggie had pale blond hair, which matched her name. The type of blond that looked dyed, but something told you it wasn't. She had bright blue eyes too. She was a regular California girl, except she lived in England. She even had a very slim figure, but was pretty average in height.
"Should we wake up Kim?" Lily asked. Kim Chung had become Lily and Maggie's counter part when they started school. Kim was from a full wizard family. As you could guess from her name, she was Chinese. She had long black hair and the yellow-ish skin. She had chocolate brown eyes, and she wore silver frames in front of them. Unlike Lily, she liked her glasses. She said they made her look more intelligent.
"If you want to feel her wrath, go right ahead," Maggie said, picking through her packages.
"I'll risk it," Lily said, rolling her eyes. "Kimmi..."
"I'm up already," Kim said, ripping her curtain open on her four-poster. "My wrath?" she asked Maggie sardonically.
"Yep," Maggie said, throwing a pair of freshly unwrapped socks aside.
"Ok," Kim said, and started to open her own gifts.
Over in the boy's dormitory, James Potter had been up for an hour, opening gifts. James had black hair that had a tendency to not cooperate and brown eyes. He also had round glasses. He was pretty tall for his age, but was also sort of skinny. He made up for it though with his smile. He had the type of smile that girls would melt under.
Across the room, Sirius Black was throwing wrapping paper at James. Sirius and James could be mistaken as brothers. They looked and acted the part. They had been best friends for as long as they could remember, like Lily and Maggie. Sirius had longish black hair, well, long for a guy, and blue eyes. His eyes looked as if they were dancing all the time.
Remus Lupin was sitting in an armchair, watching his two friends, torn between amusement and anxiety. (A/N: I got that from Rowling in GoF!) Remus had sandy brown hair and brown eyes to match it. He had a mysterious aura that followed him around, making him seem, well, mysterious.
Peter Pettigrew was sitting on his bed, laughing at the two. Peter was sort of the boy that was shunned to the side. He didn't share the total light given off by the others. They all got surprisingly good grades, despite their maturity levels, but Peter were lucky if he got above a C. He had pale blond hair, but it didn't look like Maggie's at all. He also had gray watery eyes.
James caught a wad of paper out of the air and threw it into the fireplace. "Now now, Mr. Black," said James, shaking his finger at his best friend and doing an imitation of Professor McGonnagal. "You should act your age."
"Oh no," Sirius said. "Please excuse my evil ways!"
Remus sighed and thought aloud, "Remind me how I ever ended up friends with you guys."
"C'mon, Moony," said Sirius. "You know you love us."
"Oh, yes," said Remus sarcastically. "With a dire and burning passion."
"Ok, man," said Peter between laughter. "That was way to much information."
They all laughed and made their way down to the Gryffindor common room. They were the only guys that stayed behind for the Christmas Holiday, except for some third years.
James pushed the heavy oak door open and the four of them emerged into the common room. The common room had an enormous Christmas tree in the corner. It was decked with scarlet and gold glass balls and silver garland. Then, to make it a wizard tree, there were tiny fluttering fairies of various colors, instead of the lights Muggles use. Around the fireplace, there were three large maroon armchairs. On the back of each one was the emblem of the Gryffindor lion. In the chairs were none other than Lily, Maggie, and Kim.
Maggie stuck her head over the top of the chair to see James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter walking up to them. She grinned widely and said, "Merry Christmas, Sirius."
"Merry Christmas to you too," said Sirius and sat on the arm of the armchair with her and kissed her cheek.
"Hey, what about me?" James pouted. "Do I get a 'Merry Christmas' too?"
"Uh, no," Maggie said, and then winked at him. Maggie and James were like brother and sister. They weren't, but they acted like it. Everyone said that they would be perfect for each other, but Maggie and Sirius were going out. That, and James and Maggie were to good of friends to ever be anything more than that.
"Aw, poor James," said Lily rolling her eyes. Everyone knew that James and Lily had a 'thing' for each other, but were to chicken to admit it, which was very unlike them.
Remus kneeled beside Kim in her chair. Kim and Remus had become a couple earlier that year, and seemed even more meant to be than Sirius and Maggie.
"So, Remus, what did you get for Christmas," Maggie asked, pointing to Remus with her hand which was intertwined with Sirius's. It was a bit of a tradition for all of them. They would sit around the fire and say what they all got for Christmas.
"Uh, socks, a shirt, pants, candy," he scrunched up his forehead, trying to remember it all, "and a bunch of books. Oh, and I got some new quills."
"Great, more that I can take," Sirius said, grinning.
"You know what just occurred to me?" Lily asked, looking at the fire with a far away look in her eyes. "This is the last time we're going to be able to do this. We're graduating."
The seven of them looked around at each other. Maggie leaned into Sirius's chest. Lily pulled her feet underneath her and sighed.
"You know, I think we've all been thinking about that, Lil," said James soothingly. "I mean, what are we going to do after Hogwarts? We've been here seven long years."
"The best seven in our lives," Kim said quietly.
"Yeah," said Remus. "It's hard to think about a time before Hogwarts. I mean, for me, at least."
They all knew that Remus was a werewolf, yet the girls didn't know about the four boys becoming Animagi. They knew about the Marauder's Map, having used it a few times, and James's Invisibility Cloak.
"I think it is for all of us," said Peter quietly.
"Lily, I'll send you a list of everything I got for Christmas next year, all right?" Remus asked, with a smile.
"Ok," Lily said, returning the smile.
"I'm going to be an Auror," said James. "Stop all those freaky people out there."
"Actually, that would be fun," said Maggie. Everyone but James looked at her like she was nuts. "I mean, you get to travel, or not if you don't want to. Then you get to rid the people of all evil doers." She laughed. "Like some weird super hero."
"Super-Maggie," said Lily.
"That's me," said Maggie happily. "With my X-ray vision. And the ability to jump buildings in a single bound."
"What are you talking about?" asked James, who came from an all Wizarding family.
"You wouldn't get it, Jamesie-poo," said Maggie, who ruffled his hair, which didn't help it in the least.
James grabbed Maggie's arm and pushed it back at her. "Hmmph."
The rest of the day was fairly boring, even for Christmas. Well, at least, until around three o'clock.
"I'm bored!" Lily said for the umpteenth time that day.
"Why don't we go out on the grounds or something interesting," suggested Kim to the others.
"All right," Sirius agreed, jumping to his feet. "C'mon, guys."
The teens went up to their bedrooms and put shoes and cloaks on. When Lily, Maggie, and Kim returned back down, the guys were putting on gloves and hats. Maggie pulled her gloves out of her pockets and pulled them onto her hands.
"C'mon," she said, smiling. She grabbed Sirius's wrist and pulled him down to the grounds.
When the whole group reached the grounds, they found it with a beautiful layer of freshly fallen snow, just begging to be made into snowballs.
"Ok," James said, "Lily, Remus, Kim, Peter, one team. Maggie, Sirius, and me on another."
"Three on our team?" Sirius asked, yet grabbing some snow all the time.
"Yeah, they have Lily on theirs, and she's bad enough," Maggie said jokingly, then got a snowball in the face. "You're going to get it, Evans!" she yelled and threw some snow at her friend.
The snowball was vicious, as it always was for them. Maggie ran behind a hedge, breathing hard. She tried to catch her breath. She put a hand on her chest. Then a pair of hands grabbed her from behind and she squealed.
"It's me," Sirius whispered into her ear.
"Sirius, you scared the crap out of me," said Maggie turning towards him and punching him playfully in the shoulder.
"Oh, I'm sorry," said Sirius, and for once not sarcastically. Maggie always seemed to bring out the best in him, even around his friends.
"Hey, it's ok," said Maggie, smiling at him. Maggie and Sirius had been a couple since halfway through the sixth year. They had been friends the years previous, but Maggie hadn't looked at Sirius 'that way' until then. Maggie had been very wanted, you could say, by the boys, but it was mainly because of her looks.
Sirius put his bare hand into Maggie's gloved one.
"Sirius, your hands are freezing," said Maggie, bringing his hands to her face.
"Yes, snow is cold," said Sirius, but winked at her. Maggie kissed his hands gently.
Sirius put his arms around Maggie and pulled her close. He breathed deeply, smelling her hair.
"Maggie, I-" Sirius started. He stopped, because they were suddenly being pelted by snowballs. Maggie screamed, well, laughed/screamed, and Sirius all out laughed.
"See, if you would have been out here, I could have stopped them," said James, grinning.
"I'm sure you would have," said Maggie, brushing snow off of her cloaks and out of her hair.
"You are annoying, you know that?" Sirius asked, shaking his head to get the snow off.
"Well, so are you two, but we put up with you," said Kim, smiling.
"Oh, that hurt," said Maggie, and pretended to faint into the snow.
"Let's go to Hogsmeade," said Lily suddenly.
"Let's change the subject drastically," said James, grinning.
"Shut up," said Lily, pretending to pout.
Maggie and Sirius exchanged a knowing look. The held hands again and began to walk to Hogsmeade.
"Are we going or what?" asked Maggie, looking over her shoulder at the others.
"I suppose so," said James. "Can't let you two go together. Who knows what would happen. Kidding!" he said, then covered his head to protect himself from Maggie's hand.
When the troop arrived at Hogsmeade, after Maggie and Sirius giving James a face wash, they went into The Three Broomsticks for a Butterbeer.
"Look, my favorite Hogwarts troop," said Madam Rosmerta greeted them. "Same as always?"
"Thanks, Madam Rosmerta," said James and they all sat in a booth. Somehow, Sirius and Maggie weren't involved in anyway, of course, James and Lily ended up sitting next to each other.
They drank their Butterbeer with some small talk, mainly about whether anyone had been insane enough to do some of their homework already. Lily had started, of course.
"Lily is a dork, so she's excused," Maggie said, grinning.
"Look who's friends with her," said James defensively.
Maggie and Sirius looked around, and in unison, said, "Who?"
"You know," Kim said, leaning her chin on her palms, looking at Sirius and Maggie. "I wouldn't be surprised if you two are the first to get married."
"In fact," Peter put in. "I would be pretty surprised if you didn't."
Sirius and Maggie smiled. Maggie tightened her grip on Sirius's hand. Sirius whispered, so only Maggie could hear, "So would I."
About half an hour later, the seven of them said farewell to Madam Rosmerta and started to leave Hogsmeade. Then, Lily made them go back, wanting to go into the bookstore to see if they had the latest issue of her favorite magazine.
They all scattered throughout the store, looking at various books behind the tall bookshelves.
Lily was flipping through a magazine, deciding whether or not she should buy it, when James came over to her.
"Hey, Potter," said Lily, not managing to stop the melting feeling in her stomach.
"Hi, Lily," said James; suddenly thinking this was a bad idea.
"What's up?" Lily asked, putting the magazine down to give him her full attention.
"I was wondering, if you would, er, you know," said James, swallowing the lump forming in his throat, "Want to, um, be, like, girlfriend and boyfriend." James sighed. Now, that wasn't so hard. Ha.
"Oh my, gosh, James," Lily gasped. "Yes! Of course I would!"
James smiled widely, "Really? This is so great!"
"Are we going to be like Sirius and Maggie now?" Lily asked.
The two of them looked down the aisle at Sirius and Maggie. They were standing close together, Sirius with his arm around Maggie, and laughing at something in a book. Then, Maggie looked at Sirius and their lips locked. Sirius whispered something into Maggie's ear and then kissed her forehead.
"Yeah," James said. "I wouldn't mind if you didn't."
"Ok," Lily said, and hand-in-hand they walked to the cashier.
Back by Maggie and Sirius, they watched Lily and James in amusement. Sirius put his arms around Maggie, his chin resting on her shoulder.
"Maggie," he said quietly.
"Yeah, Sirius?" asked Maggie.
"Maggie, I-I love you," Sirius said.
Maggie closed her eyes and sighed happily. "Sirius-"
"Wait, there's more," Sirius interrupted.
"There always is when it comes to you," said Maggie, putting her hand on his cheek.
"Yep," Sirius said. "Anyway, I was wondering if I would propose to you, it wouldn't be until after we graduated, of course, would you accept?"
Maggie thought for a few seconds. Would she devote everything to Sirius Black? What kind of question was that?
"Yes."
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the characters in and way, shape, or form. No copyright infringement is intended, and no money is being made off of this. Oh, and I suppose the title belongs to Poison, but whatever.
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Chapter One: Meet the Crew
Lily Evans woke up slowly in her four-poster bed. She was warm under her large quilt, but knew that it was going to be freezing the moment she stepped out. It was late December of the year 1975. The curtains around her bed weren't all the way closed, so the sunlight flooded her bed, waking her up as it spread over her face. Lily's eyes fluttered open and she sat up. She breathed in and she could smell the fire that the house elves had kept going at night in her bedroom that she shared with two other girls.
Lily slid her curtain open and felt around for her glasses to wear over her bright green eyes. She normally didn't wear them, there was a charm that she normally used so she didn't have to, but it was only temporary, and it was Christmas, for goodness sake. Lily also had naturally curly auburn hair. Lily slipped her slippers onto her feet and got out of her bed. There was a pile of gifts at the foot of it on top of her trunk. She smiled and one of her friends woke up.
"Morning, Maggie," said Lily grinning.
"Hey, Sunshine," Maggie Gold said as she streched and yawned. Lily and Maggie had been best friends for a long time. They had known each other all their lives. Maggie's mum was a Muggle, though, and her dad a wizard. Her mum and dad had agreed on Maggie going to Muggle School until Hogwarts, which is where Maggie and Lily met. Maggie had pale blond hair, which matched her name. The type of blond that looked dyed, but something told you it wasn't. She had bright blue eyes too. She was a regular California girl, except she lived in England. She even had a very slim figure, but was pretty average in height.
"Should we wake up Kim?" Lily asked. Kim Chung had become Lily and Maggie's counter part when they started school. Kim was from a full wizard family. As you could guess from her name, she was Chinese. She had long black hair and the yellow-ish skin. She had chocolate brown eyes, and she wore silver frames in front of them. Unlike Lily, she liked her glasses. She said they made her look more intelligent.
"If you want to feel her wrath, go right ahead," Maggie said, picking through her packages.
"I'll risk it," Lily said, rolling her eyes. "Kimmi..."
"I'm up already," Kim said, ripping her curtain open on her four-poster. "My wrath?" she asked Maggie sardonically.
"Yep," Maggie said, throwing a pair of freshly unwrapped socks aside.
"Ok," Kim said, and started to open her own gifts.
Over in the boy's dormitory, James Potter had been up for an hour, opening gifts. James had black hair that had a tendency to not cooperate and brown eyes. He also had round glasses. He was pretty tall for his age, but was also sort of skinny. He made up for it though with his smile. He had the type of smile that girls would melt under.
Across the room, Sirius Black was throwing wrapping paper at James. Sirius and James could be mistaken as brothers. They looked and acted the part. They had been best friends for as long as they could remember, like Lily and Maggie. Sirius had longish black hair, well, long for a guy, and blue eyes. His eyes looked as if they were dancing all the time.
Remus Lupin was sitting in an armchair, watching his two friends, torn between amusement and anxiety. (A/N: I got that from Rowling in GoF!) Remus had sandy brown hair and brown eyes to match it. He had a mysterious aura that followed him around, making him seem, well, mysterious.
Peter Pettigrew was sitting on his bed, laughing at the two. Peter was sort of the boy that was shunned to the side. He didn't share the total light given off by the others. They all got surprisingly good grades, despite their maturity levels, but Peter were lucky if he got above a C. He had pale blond hair, but it didn't look like Maggie's at all. He also had gray watery eyes.
James caught a wad of paper out of the air and threw it into the fireplace. "Now now, Mr. Black," said James, shaking his finger at his best friend and doing an imitation of Professor McGonnagal. "You should act your age."
"Oh no," Sirius said. "Please excuse my evil ways!"
Remus sighed and thought aloud, "Remind me how I ever ended up friends with you guys."
"C'mon, Moony," said Sirius. "You know you love us."
"Oh, yes," said Remus sarcastically. "With a dire and burning passion."
"Ok, man," said Peter between laughter. "That was way to much information."
They all laughed and made their way down to the Gryffindor common room. They were the only guys that stayed behind for the Christmas Holiday, except for some third years.
James pushed the heavy oak door open and the four of them emerged into the common room. The common room had an enormous Christmas tree in the corner. It was decked with scarlet and gold glass balls and silver garland. Then, to make it a wizard tree, there were tiny fluttering fairies of various colors, instead of the lights Muggles use. Around the fireplace, there were three large maroon armchairs. On the back of each one was the emblem of the Gryffindor lion. In the chairs were none other than Lily, Maggie, and Kim.
Maggie stuck her head over the top of the chair to see James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter walking up to them. She grinned widely and said, "Merry Christmas, Sirius."
"Merry Christmas to you too," said Sirius and sat on the arm of the armchair with her and kissed her cheek.
"Hey, what about me?" James pouted. "Do I get a 'Merry Christmas' too?"
"Uh, no," Maggie said, and then winked at him. Maggie and James were like brother and sister. They weren't, but they acted like it. Everyone said that they would be perfect for each other, but Maggie and Sirius were going out. That, and James and Maggie were to good of friends to ever be anything more than that.
"Aw, poor James," said Lily rolling her eyes. Everyone knew that James and Lily had a 'thing' for each other, but were to chicken to admit it, which was very unlike them.
Remus kneeled beside Kim in her chair. Kim and Remus had become a couple earlier that year, and seemed even more meant to be than Sirius and Maggie.
"So, Remus, what did you get for Christmas," Maggie asked, pointing to Remus with her hand which was intertwined with Sirius's. It was a bit of a tradition for all of them. They would sit around the fire and say what they all got for Christmas.
"Uh, socks, a shirt, pants, candy," he scrunched up his forehead, trying to remember it all, "and a bunch of books. Oh, and I got some new quills."
"Great, more that I can take," Sirius said, grinning.
"You know what just occurred to me?" Lily asked, looking at the fire with a far away look in her eyes. "This is the last time we're going to be able to do this. We're graduating."
The seven of them looked around at each other. Maggie leaned into Sirius's chest. Lily pulled her feet underneath her and sighed.
"You know, I think we've all been thinking about that, Lil," said James soothingly. "I mean, what are we going to do after Hogwarts? We've been here seven long years."
"The best seven in our lives," Kim said quietly.
"Yeah," said Remus. "It's hard to think about a time before Hogwarts. I mean, for me, at least."
They all knew that Remus was a werewolf, yet the girls didn't know about the four boys becoming Animagi. They knew about the Marauder's Map, having used it a few times, and James's Invisibility Cloak.
"I think it is for all of us," said Peter quietly.
"Lily, I'll send you a list of everything I got for Christmas next year, all right?" Remus asked, with a smile.
"Ok," Lily said, returning the smile.
"I'm going to be an Auror," said James. "Stop all those freaky people out there."
"Actually, that would be fun," said Maggie. Everyone but James looked at her like she was nuts. "I mean, you get to travel, or not if you don't want to. Then you get to rid the people of all evil doers." She laughed. "Like some weird super hero."
"Super-Maggie," said Lily.
"That's me," said Maggie happily. "With my X-ray vision. And the ability to jump buildings in a single bound."
"What are you talking about?" asked James, who came from an all Wizarding family.
"You wouldn't get it, Jamesie-poo," said Maggie, who ruffled his hair, which didn't help it in the least.
James grabbed Maggie's arm and pushed it back at her. "Hmmph."
The rest of the day was fairly boring, even for Christmas. Well, at least, until around three o'clock.
"I'm bored!" Lily said for the umpteenth time that day.
"Why don't we go out on the grounds or something interesting," suggested Kim to the others.
"All right," Sirius agreed, jumping to his feet. "C'mon, guys."
The teens went up to their bedrooms and put shoes and cloaks on. When Lily, Maggie, and Kim returned back down, the guys were putting on gloves and hats. Maggie pulled her gloves out of her pockets and pulled them onto her hands.
"C'mon," she said, smiling. She grabbed Sirius's wrist and pulled him down to the grounds.
When the whole group reached the grounds, they found it with a beautiful layer of freshly fallen snow, just begging to be made into snowballs.
"Ok," James said, "Lily, Remus, Kim, Peter, one team. Maggie, Sirius, and me on another."
"Three on our team?" Sirius asked, yet grabbing some snow all the time.
"Yeah, they have Lily on theirs, and she's bad enough," Maggie said jokingly, then got a snowball in the face. "You're going to get it, Evans!" she yelled and threw some snow at her friend.
The snowball was vicious, as it always was for them. Maggie ran behind a hedge, breathing hard. She tried to catch her breath. She put a hand on her chest. Then a pair of hands grabbed her from behind and she squealed.
"It's me," Sirius whispered into her ear.
"Sirius, you scared the crap out of me," said Maggie turning towards him and punching him playfully in the shoulder.
"Oh, I'm sorry," said Sirius, and for once not sarcastically. Maggie always seemed to bring out the best in him, even around his friends.
"Hey, it's ok," said Maggie, smiling at him. Maggie and Sirius had been a couple since halfway through the sixth year. They had been friends the years previous, but Maggie hadn't looked at Sirius 'that way' until then. Maggie had been very wanted, you could say, by the boys, but it was mainly because of her looks.
Sirius put his bare hand into Maggie's gloved one.
"Sirius, your hands are freezing," said Maggie, bringing his hands to her face.
"Yes, snow is cold," said Sirius, but winked at her. Maggie kissed his hands gently.
Sirius put his arms around Maggie and pulled her close. He breathed deeply, smelling her hair.
"Maggie, I-" Sirius started. He stopped, because they were suddenly being pelted by snowballs. Maggie screamed, well, laughed/screamed, and Sirius all out laughed.
"See, if you would have been out here, I could have stopped them," said James, grinning.
"I'm sure you would have," said Maggie, brushing snow off of her cloaks and out of her hair.
"You are annoying, you know that?" Sirius asked, shaking his head to get the snow off.
"Well, so are you two, but we put up with you," said Kim, smiling.
"Oh, that hurt," said Maggie, and pretended to faint into the snow.
"Let's go to Hogsmeade," said Lily suddenly.
"Let's change the subject drastically," said James, grinning.
"Shut up," said Lily, pretending to pout.
Maggie and Sirius exchanged a knowing look. The held hands again and began to walk to Hogsmeade.
"Are we going or what?" asked Maggie, looking over her shoulder at the others.
"I suppose so," said James. "Can't let you two go together. Who knows what would happen. Kidding!" he said, then covered his head to protect himself from Maggie's hand.
When the troop arrived at Hogsmeade, after Maggie and Sirius giving James a face wash, they went into The Three Broomsticks for a Butterbeer.
"Look, my favorite Hogwarts troop," said Madam Rosmerta greeted them. "Same as always?"
"Thanks, Madam Rosmerta," said James and they all sat in a booth. Somehow, Sirius and Maggie weren't involved in anyway, of course, James and Lily ended up sitting next to each other.
They drank their Butterbeer with some small talk, mainly about whether anyone had been insane enough to do some of their homework already. Lily had started, of course.
"Lily is a dork, so she's excused," Maggie said, grinning.
"Look who's friends with her," said James defensively.
Maggie and Sirius looked around, and in unison, said, "Who?"
"You know," Kim said, leaning her chin on her palms, looking at Sirius and Maggie. "I wouldn't be surprised if you two are the first to get married."
"In fact," Peter put in. "I would be pretty surprised if you didn't."
Sirius and Maggie smiled. Maggie tightened her grip on Sirius's hand. Sirius whispered, so only Maggie could hear, "So would I."
About half an hour later, the seven of them said farewell to Madam Rosmerta and started to leave Hogsmeade. Then, Lily made them go back, wanting to go into the bookstore to see if they had the latest issue of her favorite magazine.
They all scattered throughout the store, looking at various books behind the tall bookshelves.
Lily was flipping through a magazine, deciding whether or not she should buy it, when James came over to her.
"Hey, Potter," said Lily, not managing to stop the melting feeling in her stomach.
"Hi, Lily," said James; suddenly thinking this was a bad idea.
"What's up?" Lily asked, putting the magazine down to give him her full attention.
"I was wondering, if you would, er, you know," said James, swallowing the lump forming in his throat, "Want to, um, be, like, girlfriend and boyfriend." James sighed. Now, that wasn't so hard. Ha.
"Oh my, gosh, James," Lily gasped. "Yes! Of course I would!"
James smiled widely, "Really? This is so great!"
"Are we going to be like Sirius and Maggie now?" Lily asked.
The two of them looked down the aisle at Sirius and Maggie. They were standing close together, Sirius with his arm around Maggie, and laughing at something in a book. Then, Maggie looked at Sirius and their lips locked. Sirius whispered something into Maggie's ear and then kissed her forehead.
"Yeah," James said. "I wouldn't mind if you didn't."
"Ok," Lily said, and hand-in-hand they walked to the cashier.
Back by Maggie and Sirius, they watched Lily and James in amusement. Sirius put his arms around Maggie, his chin resting on her shoulder.
"Maggie," he said quietly.
"Yeah, Sirius?" asked Maggie.
"Maggie, I-I love you," Sirius said.
Maggie closed her eyes and sighed happily. "Sirius-"
"Wait, there's more," Sirius interrupted.
"There always is when it comes to you," said Maggie, putting her hand on his cheek.
"Yep," Sirius said. "Anyway, I was wondering if I would propose to you, it wouldn't be until after we graduated, of course, would you accept?"
Maggie thought for a few seconds. Would she devote everything to Sirius Black? What kind of question was that?
"Yes."