A/N: Just please review, thank you! Oh, and DeWitt is the Minister of Magic... :)
Disclaimer: Same as always!
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Chapter Two: Spring Cleaning?
Maggie sat in an armchair in her house, flipping through her book. She wasn't really reading it, she didn't feel like it, really. She sighed contently and looked over the cover at Sirius, who was sleeping on the couch. Maggie smiled and thought back over the last year. It had been two years since they graduated from Hogwarts. So much had gone on throughout it though. Maggie and James had become Aurors, much to Sirius and Lily's dislike. Maggie was also working in the Ministry, kind of as a side job. All she really did was make sure no one went into the Permanent Records file room, but it was money. Maggie and Sirius had moved in together, their excuse was to save money, but they were really wanting to get engaged. Just a half a year ago, Remus and Kim had gotten engaged themselves, something that had astounded everyone. Everyone had had their money on Sirius and Maggie getting together first, but you know how these things go. Remus had told Sirius and James that the reason he had proposed to Kim so quickly, he was 21, she was 20, was because he had been afraid he wouldn't be able to find another girl that would like him for being him, and not be scared off at the fact that he was a werewolf. The wedding happened to be June 28th, which also happened to be the next day, imagine that one. Lily and Maggie were bridesmaids along with some of Kim's relatives and Sirius and James were both the best man, mainly because Remus couldn't decide. Peter got to be the ring bearer, the lucky dog. (hee hee)
Maggie looked over at Sirius, laying on his back, sleeping so contently. She smiled again. Maggie loved that guy. She knew she did. Maggie and Sirius had been a couple for four years now. It still astounded everyone that they weren't at each others throats yet. Maggie just said that it was a sign.
Maggie went over to were Sirius was laying down. She swept a stray lock of black hair out of his face. She put a finger on his forehead and trailed it down to his cheek. Sirius, of course, slept through all of this. He had a tendancy to be a very heavy sleeper. Maggie sat her head on Sirius's chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat as his chest rose and fell.
Sirius woke up slowly. He felt Maggie and his heart melted. He brought his hand up to her head and ran his fingers through her long blond hair.
"Hi, Maggie," Sirius said hoarsely. He had spent the last week getting over a bout of strep. The magical way to get rid of it wasn't always pleasent, so Sirius took the Muggle way.
"Are you feeling better, Si?" Maggie asked, putting a hand to his cheek and then his forhead, checking for a fever.
"A bit," said Sirius. "I'll be fine by tomorrow."
"Good," Maggie said, "I don't thing DeWitt will tolerate me missing anymore work." While Sirius had been sick, Maggie stayed with him, nursing him back to health.
"I was actually thinking about the wedding tomorrow," said Sirius, sitting up.
"Oh, good point," said Maggie. "Are you hungry?"
"No, if I eat, I'll probably puke," Sirius said.
"You haven't eaten anything in days," Maggie said. "And you don't have the flu, you have strep."
"Whatever," Sirius said, waving his hand dismissivly. "I'm just not hungry."
"Ok," Maggie said, standing up. "If you need anything..."
"I know," Sirius said, reaching for the remote. "Can you give me that?"
Maggie rolled her eyes and gave it to the man. "Here. I'll be right back, I'm going to Lily's house for a minute."
"Ok," said Sirius, flipping through the channels. "Be careful."
Maggie just smiled at the man and Aparated to Lily's house.
"Lily, I'm home!" Maggie said from the kitchen that she had Aparated in. Lily lived in the house she had grown up in. Lily's parents had died a few years prior, so she had gotten the house. Lily's sister, Petunia, had gotten married to Vernon Dursley, and lived with him in Surrey.
"Maggie, is that you?" Lily came into the kitchen. Her long auburn red hair was up in a pony-tail and she was wearing some old clothes. She had a washcloth in her hand.
"Cleaning?" Maggie asked.
"Yep," Lily smiled. "Spring cleaning. James is coming by later to help. You and Sirius should help too, hint hint."
"Oh really," said Maggie, opening Lily's refrigerator. "I don't know, Sirius has been sick lately." She pulled out a soda and opened it. "I can ask him, though, if you want me too."
"Sure," Lily said, whiping down the kitchen table with the tablecloth. "You can use the fireplace. The powder's in the green pot. The purple one has Floo in it."
"All right, thanks, Lil," Maggie said, and went into the living room. There were lots of pictures, many of them moving, but some where of her family. Those were Muggle pictures. Sometimes the Wizard pictures would talk about the other pictures. Kind of funny, when you think about it.
Anyways, Maggie threw some of the powder into the fire and watched as the flames changed colors and then Sirius's head was in the fireplace.
"Hey," Sirius said to Maggie. "What's up?"
"You want to come over to Lily's?" Maggie asked Sirius. "She's cleaning and all that."
"You're asking me if I want to come and clean?" Sirius asked.
"Well, I'm staying for awhile, and if you don't feel good, you can stay at home," said Maggie. "But, James is coming by and you know how much he'll make fun of you later for whimping out like this."
"Yeah, yeah," Sirius said, sighing. "I'll come, but if everyone gets sick, it's your fault."
"Sirius, I live with you and I haven't gotten sick yet," Maggie said. "And you're not contageous anymore. Just come over when you're dressed and all that."
"Ok," Sirius said and there was a pop and his head disappeared.
"He is such a grouch," Maggie said, walking into the kitchen again, where Lily was starting to wash dishes.
"What's his problem?" Lily asked.
"He's just, argh," Maggie said. "He's been sick the last few days, so that might be it."
"Mh hm," Lily said, listening.
"But he's been so disagreeable," Maggie continued. "I know I like him, love him even, but he's just been so hard to be around. I'm afraid he's changing so drastically. I don't want to lose him. And why the heck are you washing the dishes the Muggle way," Maggie said, seeing what Lily was doing.
"I can't find my damn wand," Lily said angrilly. "That's the main reason I'm cleaning. I know that it's somewhere in the house."
Maggie smiled. It was just like her friend to lose something like that. "It's gotta be around here somewhere."
"Yeah," said Lily. "Well, continue."
"Well, he's just become a pain," Maggie said, resting her chin on her hand. "I know it's mean, but he is."
"Here's a question," Lily said. "Do you love him?"
Maggie sat for awhile thinking about that. Did she love him? Sure, she said that she loved him before, but that was such a long time ago. They were still in Hogwarts! Maggie pictured Sirius. His black hair that she always longed to touch. His bright blue eyes dancing with cheer and laughter. His muscular stature. His wonderful personality. His ability to always make her smile, even when she was having the crappiest of days. His way of making even the stupidest thing seem hilarious.
Lily watched her friend contemplating the question with curiosity. She remembered back in the sixth year when Sirius and Maggie had become a couple. She used to always make fun of them, but they always seemed to enjoy it. No matter how much Maggie had loved to spend time with Sirius, she always made time to hang out with Lily.
"Yeah," Maggie suddenly said, bringing Lily back to Earth. "I do."
"Well, then what's wrong?" Lily asked, turning back to the stack of dishes.
"I don't know," Maggie admited.
There was a pop followed by another one in the living room.
"Hey, Padfoot!" they heard James say.
"Prongs, what a surprise!" Sirius's hoarse voice said.
Maggie closed her eyes and layed her head down into her arms. James and Sirius entered the small kitchen/dining room. James saw Maggie and began to massage her neck. (A/N: Remember what I said before about em being like brother and sister?)
"Oh my, God, that feels good," Maggie said, sitting up.
"Thank you," James said, pulling a chair out from by the table. "So, why are we here again?"
"You get to clean my house," Lily said.
"Call a maid service," Maggie muttered.
"Can't you use your wand?" Sirius asked.
"No, because I lost it, all right?" Lily snapped. "Now, there's some paint over there. I need to paint the upstairs bathroom. The toilets need washing. The carpet needs to be vacuumed. And, that's all until I think of more."
"Can't we use our wands?" Sirius asked.
"No," Lily said. "If I can't use mine you can't use yours."
"Gee, you're in a bad mood, all of the sudden," Maggie said.
"Well, if Sirius, here-"
"All right, all right, we're going," Sirius said, putting his hands up.
We went into the hall where there was some paint, buckets, and brushes.
"Well, the bathroom isn't that big, so not all of us need to paint it," Maggie pointed out.
"I'll vaccum," James said.
"Ok, come on, Sirius," Maggie said, grabbing some pails of paint and paintbrushes.
Sirius gathered up the rest of the supplies and followed her upstairs to the bathroom. It really did need repainting. It had an old pale yellow paint on the walls, that didn't suit a bathroom in the least, that was starting to peal.
"You know how easy it would be just to-"
"No, Sirius," Maggie said, stirring some paint. "Have you ever seen Lily pissed off?" she added in an undertone.
The paint was a sky blue, almost identical to Maggie's eyes. Sirius took some brushes out of the plastic bags they had come inside of. Maggie sighed. This wasn't exactly how they were planning to spend her Friday. Especially when she was going to a wedding the next day.
Maggie and Sirius began to paint in silence, a deafening silence.
"So, what's up?" Maggie asked, turning around to face him.
"Not much," Sirius said as Maggie bent over to get more paint onto her brush. Not paying attention, some of his paint glopped off of his brush and right onto the back of her head. "Crap."
"Black, you did not just do that," Maggie said, not daring to straighten up.
"Sorry?"
"Aw, man, Sirius," Maggie said, whiping the paint off the back of her head and onto her hand. "Here," she said and whiped the paint off of her hand and onto his shirt. "This is for you."
"Oh, I'll treasure it forever," Sirius said, then swipping his brush across her back.
Maggie turned around, picked up the gallon of paint, and smiled with the usual glint in her eye when she was about to do something extremely annoying to someone.
"No," Sirius said.
"All right," Maggie said, putting the paint back down, but then picked up her wand and said, "Wingardium Leviosa," with a sly smile. The paint floated up in the air and then somehow spilled all over Sirius.
"Ok, this means war," Sirius said.
Well, for the next ten minutes Sirius and Maggie chased each other around the bathroom until they were both covered with blue paint, and so was everything else for that matter.
"Ok, I give," Maggie said, catching her breath.
"Ditto," Sirius said. He walked over to the bathtub, but slipped on a patch of paint.
"Sirius, are you ok?" Maggie asked, rushing to his side.
"Damn it, that hurt," Sirius said simply.
Maggie smiled. "As long as you don't go and die on me."
Sirius wrapped his blue fingers around Maggie's. "I promise, I wouldn't do something like that."
"Good," Maggie whispered.
Sirius sat up and fumbled for something in his cloak pocket. "I have something for you."
"Really," Maggie asked, running her hair through her blond hair, trying to get some of the already drying paint out of it. "What is it?"
"It's a surprise," said Sirius, "that you will get once I find."
Maggie shook her head, sending some droplets of paint flying and specking the white bathtub, or what was left of white on the bathtub. (Sorry, that was confusing...)
"Oh, I found it," Sirius said triumphantly, pulling a small box out of his pocket. Maggie instantly knew what was about to happen. Her jaw dropped in shock, then she smiled.
"Maggie, will you marry me?" Sirius asked, his voice wavering slightly.
Maggie felt tears fill her eyes almost instantly as Sirius slid the ring onto her finger. She looked at the gold band with a solitary diamond on it. She looked up at Sirius, at a loss for words.
"Nod for yes," Sirius said.
Maggie nodded, then she began to cry, happy tears, of course. :)
"Good, because that wasn't a cheap ring," Sirius joked, making Maggie laugh.
~*~*~*~
Thank you everyone that reviewed!
PadmeSkywalker: Glad you liked it! You were my first reviewer, so go you, lol!
ShadowKat: I'll try and squeeze Snape in, but I dunno if I'll be able to... :S But, about the age thing. I know, I have it all planned out. They're going to have a span of five years to get them all married off, so it'll all work out in the end. :)
PrOnGs: Is there any suggestions you have? Glad you liked it and all, but you can tell me! :)
smiley :): I take it you liked it! Thanks for reviewing!
thistlemeg: No! Maggie can't die! Actually, she's my favorite to depict, so chances are she won't die. If I ever get overly ambitious though...
aurora riddle: I'll definently keep going, as long as you all keep on reviewing!
TorQ: I read it and reviewed! Now keep reviewing for me! :)
she who must not be named: Believe me... it's SO not a love/hate fic. I can't stand those... :)
Potterprincess: I'm going to try not to kill anyone off, like I said earlier, but you know how these things go... Keep reviewing and I absolutly LOVE "Ten Auror's Of Destiny"!!! It's an awesome fic!
Disclaimer: Same as always!
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Chapter Two: Spring Cleaning?
Maggie sat in an armchair in her house, flipping through her book. She wasn't really reading it, she didn't feel like it, really. She sighed contently and looked over the cover at Sirius, who was sleeping on the couch. Maggie smiled and thought back over the last year. It had been two years since they graduated from Hogwarts. So much had gone on throughout it though. Maggie and James had become Aurors, much to Sirius and Lily's dislike. Maggie was also working in the Ministry, kind of as a side job. All she really did was make sure no one went into the Permanent Records file room, but it was money. Maggie and Sirius had moved in together, their excuse was to save money, but they were really wanting to get engaged. Just a half a year ago, Remus and Kim had gotten engaged themselves, something that had astounded everyone. Everyone had had their money on Sirius and Maggie getting together first, but you know how these things go. Remus had told Sirius and James that the reason he had proposed to Kim so quickly, he was 21, she was 20, was because he had been afraid he wouldn't be able to find another girl that would like him for being him, and not be scared off at the fact that he was a werewolf. The wedding happened to be June 28th, which also happened to be the next day, imagine that one. Lily and Maggie were bridesmaids along with some of Kim's relatives and Sirius and James were both the best man, mainly because Remus couldn't decide. Peter got to be the ring bearer, the lucky dog. (hee hee)
Maggie looked over at Sirius, laying on his back, sleeping so contently. She smiled again. Maggie loved that guy. She knew she did. Maggie and Sirius had been a couple for four years now. It still astounded everyone that they weren't at each others throats yet. Maggie just said that it was a sign.
Maggie went over to were Sirius was laying down. She swept a stray lock of black hair out of his face. She put a finger on his forehead and trailed it down to his cheek. Sirius, of course, slept through all of this. He had a tendancy to be a very heavy sleeper. Maggie sat her head on Sirius's chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat as his chest rose and fell.
Sirius woke up slowly. He felt Maggie and his heart melted. He brought his hand up to her head and ran his fingers through her long blond hair.
"Hi, Maggie," Sirius said hoarsely. He had spent the last week getting over a bout of strep. The magical way to get rid of it wasn't always pleasent, so Sirius took the Muggle way.
"Are you feeling better, Si?" Maggie asked, putting a hand to his cheek and then his forhead, checking for a fever.
"A bit," said Sirius. "I'll be fine by tomorrow."
"Good," Maggie said, "I don't thing DeWitt will tolerate me missing anymore work." While Sirius had been sick, Maggie stayed with him, nursing him back to health.
"I was actually thinking about the wedding tomorrow," said Sirius, sitting up.
"Oh, good point," said Maggie. "Are you hungry?"
"No, if I eat, I'll probably puke," Sirius said.
"You haven't eaten anything in days," Maggie said. "And you don't have the flu, you have strep."
"Whatever," Sirius said, waving his hand dismissivly. "I'm just not hungry."
"Ok," Maggie said, standing up. "If you need anything..."
"I know," Sirius said, reaching for the remote. "Can you give me that?"
Maggie rolled her eyes and gave it to the man. "Here. I'll be right back, I'm going to Lily's house for a minute."
"Ok," said Sirius, flipping through the channels. "Be careful."
Maggie just smiled at the man and Aparated to Lily's house.
"Lily, I'm home!" Maggie said from the kitchen that she had Aparated in. Lily lived in the house she had grown up in. Lily's parents had died a few years prior, so she had gotten the house. Lily's sister, Petunia, had gotten married to Vernon Dursley, and lived with him in Surrey.
"Maggie, is that you?" Lily came into the kitchen. Her long auburn red hair was up in a pony-tail and she was wearing some old clothes. She had a washcloth in her hand.
"Cleaning?" Maggie asked.
"Yep," Lily smiled. "Spring cleaning. James is coming by later to help. You and Sirius should help too, hint hint."
"Oh really," said Maggie, opening Lily's refrigerator. "I don't know, Sirius has been sick lately." She pulled out a soda and opened it. "I can ask him, though, if you want me too."
"Sure," Lily said, whiping down the kitchen table with the tablecloth. "You can use the fireplace. The powder's in the green pot. The purple one has Floo in it."
"All right, thanks, Lil," Maggie said, and went into the living room. There were lots of pictures, many of them moving, but some where of her family. Those were Muggle pictures. Sometimes the Wizard pictures would talk about the other pictures. Kind of funny, when you think about it.
Anyways, Maggie threw some of the powder into the fire and watched as the flames changed colors and then Sirius's head was in the fireplace.
"Hey," Sirius said to Maggie. "What's up?"
"You want to come over to Lily's?" Maggie asked Sirius. "She's cleaning and all that."
"You're asking me if I want to come and clean?" Sirius asked.
"Well, I'm staying for awhile, and if you don't feel good, you can stay at home," said Maggie. "But, James is coming by and you know how much he'll make fun of you later for whimping out like this."
"Yeah, yeah," Sirius said, sighing. "I'll come, but if everyone gets sick, it's your fault."
"Sirius, I live with you and I haven't gotten sick yet," Maggie said. "And you're not contageous anymore. Just come over when you're dressed and all that."
"Ok," Sirius said and there was a pop and his head disappeared.
"He is such a grouch," Maggie said, walking into the kitchen again, where Lily was starting to wash dishes.
"What's his problem?" Lily asked.
"He's just, argh," Maggie said. "He's been sick the last few days, so that might be it."
"Mh hm," Lily said, listening.
"But he's been so disagreeable," Maggie continued. "I know I like him, love him even, but he's just been so hard to be around. I'm afraid he's changing so drastically. I don't want to lose him. And why the heck are you washing the dishes the Muggle way," Maggie said, seeing what Lily was doing.
"I can't find my damn wand," Lily said angrilly. "That's the main reason I'm cleaning. I know that it's somewhere in the house."
Maggie smiled. It was just like her friend to lose something like that. "It's gotta be around here somewhere."
"Yeah," said Lily. "Well, continue."
"Well, he's just become a pain," Maggie said, resting her chin on her hand. "I know it's mean, but he is."
"Here's a question," Lily said. "Do you love him?"
Maggie sat for awhile thinking about that. Did she love him? Sure, she said that she loved him before, but that was such a long time ago. They were still in Hogwarts! Maggie pictured Sirius. His black hair that she always longed to touch. His bright blue eyes dancing with cheer and laughter. His muscular stature. His wonderful personality. His ability to always make her smile, even when she was having the crappiest of days. His way of making even the stupidest thing seem hilarious.
Lily watched her friend contemplating the question with curiosity. She remembered back in the sixth year when Sirius and Maggie had become a couple. She used to always make fun of them, but they always seemed to enjoy it. No matter how much Maggie had loved to spend time with Sirius, she always made time to hang out with Lily.
"Yeah," Maggie suddenly said, bringing Lily back to Earth. "I do."
"Well, then what's wrong?" Lily asked, turning back to the stack of dishes.
"I don't know," Maggie admited.
There was a pop followed by another one in the living room.
"Hey, Padfoot!" they heard James say.
"Prongs, what a surprise!" Sirius's hoarse voice said.
Maggie closed her eyes and layed her head down into her arms. James and Sirius entered the small kitchen/dining room. James saw Maggie and began to massage her neck. (A/N: Remember what I said before about em being like brother and sister?)
"Oh my, God, that feels good," Maggie said, sitting up.
"Thank you," James said, pulling a chair out from by the table. "So, why are we here again?"
"You get to clean my house," Lily said.
"Call a maid service," Maggie muttered.
"Can't you use your wand?" Sirius asked.
"No, because I lost it, all right?" Lily snapped. "Now, there's some paint over there. I need to paint the upstairs bathroom. The toilets need washing. The carpet needs to be vacuumed. And, that's all until I think of more."
"Can't we use our wands?" Sirius asked.
"No," Lily said. "If I can't use mine you can't use yours."
"Gee, you're in a bad mood, all of the sudden," Maggie said.
"Well, if Sirius, here-"
"All right, all right, we're going," Sirius said, putting his hands up.
We went into the hall where there was some paint, buckets, and brushes.
"Well, the bathroom isn't that big, so not all of us need to paint it," Maggie pointed out.
"I'll vaccum," James said.
"Ok, come on, Sirius," Maggie said, grabbing some pails of paint and paintbrushes.
Sirius gathered up the rest of the supplies and followed her upstairs to the bathroom. It really did need repainting. It had an old pale yellow paint on the walls, that didn't suit a bathroom in the least, that was starting to peal.
"You know how easy it would be just to-"
"No, Sirius," Maggie said, stirring some paint. "Have you ever seen Lily pissed off?" she added in an undertone.
The paint was a sky blue, almost identical to Maggie's eyes. Sirius took some brushes out of the plastic bags they had come inside of. Maggie sighed. This wasn't exactly how they were planning to spend her Friday. Especially when she was going to a wedding the next day.
Maggie and Sirius began to paint in silence, a deafening silence.
"So, what's up?" Maggie asked, turning around to face him.
"Not much," Sirius said as Maggie bent over to get more paint onto her brush. Not paying attention, some of his paint glopped off of his brush and right onto the back of her head. "Crap."
"Black, you did not just do that," Maggie said, not daring to straighten up.
"Sorry?"
"Aw, man, Sirius," Maggie said, whiping the paint off the back of her head and onto her hand. "Here," she said and whiped the paint off of her hand and onto his shirt. "This is for you."
"Oh, I'll treasure it forever," Sirius said, then swipping his brush across her back.
Maggie turned around, picked up the gallon of paint, and smiled with the usual glint in her eye when she was about to do something extremely annoying to someone.
"No," Sirius said.
"All right," Maggie said, putting the paint back down, but then picked up her wand and said, "Wingardium Leviosa," with a sly smile. The paint floated up in the air and then somehow spilled all over Sirius.
"Ok, this means war," Sirius said.
Well, for the next ten minutes Sirius and Maggie chased each other around the bathroom until they were both covered with blue paint, and so was everything else for that matter.
"Ok, I give," Maggie said, catching her breath.
"Ditto," Sirius said. He walked over to the bathtub, but slipped on a patch of paint.
"Sirius, are you ok?" Maggie asked, rushing to his side.
"Damn it, that hurt," Sirius said simply.
Maggie smiled. "As long as you don't go and die on me."
Sirius wrapped his blue fingers around Maggie's. "I promise, I wouldn't do something like that."
"Good," Maggie whispered.
Sirius sat up and fumbled for something in his cloak pocket. "I have something for you."
"Really," Maggie asked, running her hair through her blond hair, trying to get some of the already drying paint out of it. "What is it?"
"It's a surprise," said Sirius, "that you will get once I find."
Maggie shook her head, sending some droplets of paint flying and specking the white bathtub, or what was left of white on the bathtub. (Sorry, that was confusing...)
"Oh, I found it," Sirius said triumphantly, pulling a small box out of his pocket. Maggie instantly knew what was about to happen. Her jaw dropped in shock, then she smiled.
"Maggie, will you marry me?" Sirius asked, his voice wavering slightly.
Maggie felt tears fill her eyes almost instantly as Sirius slid the ring onto her finger. She looked at the gold band with a solitary diamond on it. She looked up at Sirius, at a loss for words.
"Nod for yes," Sirius said.
Maggie nodded, then she began to cry, happy tears, of course. :)
"Good, because that wasn't a cheap ring," Sirius joked, making Maggie laugh.
~*~*~*~
Thank you everyone that reviewed!
PadmeSkywalker: Glad you liked it! You were my first reviewer, so go you, lol!
ShadowKat: I'll try and squeeze Snape in, but I dunno if I'll be able to... :S But, about the age thing. I know, I have it all planned out. They're going to have a span of five years to get them all married off, so it'll all work out in the end. :)
PrOnGs: Is there any suggestions you have? Glad you liked it and all, but you can tell me! :)
smiley :): I take it you liked it! Thanks for reviewing!
thistlemeg: No! Maggie can't die! Actually, she's my favorite to depict, so chances are she won't die. If I ever get overly ambitious though...
aurora riddle: I'll definently keep going, as long as you all keep on reviewing!
TorQ: I read it and reviewed! Now keep reviewing for me! :)
she who must not be named: Believe me... it's SO not a love/hate fic. I can't stand those... :)
Potterprincess: I'm going to try not to kill anyone off, like I said earlier, but you know how these things go... Keep reviewing and I absolutly LOVE "Ten Auror's Of Destiny"!!! It's an awesome fic!