Part Five:

My girl experiences in the third year didn't end with Chelsea. Unfortunatly.

We were on the train, heading back to London and the rest of the world. I felt sick to my stomach: the thought of seeing my family again, I guess. I didn't like them much, and the feeling was mutual.

"Hey, where the hell is the snack cart?" James demanded after awhile. He and Remus were playing Gobstones, Peter was trying worm his way into the game, and I was bored and tired.

"I can go find it," I said, standing up. I left the compartment, and to my disapointment, Peter tagged along.

We found the witch with the cart on the opposite side of the train, and she said that she'd be by soon. I led Peter back to our compartment. We were passing the middle part of the train, when a voice came from one of the compartments:

"Sirius Black?"

I stopped and stuck my head in. It was a near empty compartment: the only person was the Head Girl of that year, Anastacia Beaverhousen. "Um...hi," I said. I really didn't like her: she'd given me detention so many times that year that I'd lost track.

She smiled at me, though. "Come in here." I went in, and she added, "Your friend can go away."

Peter winked at me and strolled off, probably to tell the others that I was going to get some action.

I looked at Anastacia and noticed that she'd been crying. "Um...are you okay?"

"Oh...not really," she said with a weak smile. "Brummet just broke up with me." Brummet Coop, the Head Boy that year, had been her boyfriend.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said, not really feeling sorry. After all, this was the bitch who busted me out for putting Dung Bombs in Filch's office. Why should I care if she had her heart broken.

"Yeah," she said. "You know, I never really liked him anyway, though. We only went out 'cause, I dunno, we were Head Boy and Girl, you know?"

"Um...okay."

"You know," she said thoughtfully. "I never thought I'd be talking about my relationship problems with you. I would be talking to Hallie, but that's who Brummet broke up with me for." She smiled again. "I got you in trouble so mucht this year."

"Yeah, I know."

She sighed. "Sorry," she said, sounding sincere. "I guess...I dunno..." She examined me thoughtfully. "You're so cute."

I thought I was going to choke. Did my sworn enemy just call me cute?

Then I realized: we weren't enemies anymore. And she was pretty damn cute, too.

So I took her mind off Coop, and she made up for all the times she'd gotten me in trouble. No, no oral sex: the doors were made of glass! But when we were making out, lots of kids "casually" passed by, peeking in and whispering about the troublemaker making out with the ex-Head Girl.

I never heard from her again after that...

*********************

That summer had a miserable start. James promised to see if his parents would let me stay with them at the end: I'd met them over Christmas, and they'd seemed to like me. "I'll send you an owl," he promised.

Mum and Regulus picked me up. Dad, of course, was nowhere to be found. Mum frowned at me. "You need a haircut." I'd let my hair grow a little longer that year, so it hung in my eyes. The girls loved it.

Regulus was about nine at the time, and would be starting at Hogwarts the year after the next. I thought, just one more year without that little twirp around. He had become worse then ever, snitching on me for every little thing I did. When I finally put a body-binding spell on him, Mum kicked me out of the house. "Come back when you're ready to apologize!"

Guess I'll never go back, I thought as I walked the streets.

I rounded the corner, intending to just walk around town all day. I had some Muggle money in my pocket, maybe I'd go to the store or something...

"Sirius...Sirius Black?"

I turned around, and almost had a freaking heart attack. There, standing on her porch, was Willow Jauger, looking as pretty as ever. "Willow?"

She smiled at me, and came down to the sidewalk. I was surprised as she wrapped her arms around me in an embrace. "Oh, my God! It's been so long!"

"Yeah, five years?" I said as she let me go.

"Wow, where have you been going?" We started walking down the sidewalk.

"Eton," I lied. She looked impressed. Like I was going to tell her the truth.

"How's your summer going?" she asked, not bothering to tell me where she was going. I felt bad for her: she was probably going to some crappy local school.

"Pretty good," I said, not going into the details of what a little shit Regulus was.

She cleared her throat. "Listen, Sirius...I'm sorry about the way I treated you..."

I laughed. "What, when we were eight? Don't worry about it."

"You...you look great."

"So do you."

It was like an akward reunion. I knew that I liked her. And she liked me back.

I began sneaking out at night to see her. We would meet on the street corner, and just walk around. We would go into her backyard and sit (and make out) under the tree. We never had sex, but we did get to "third base" a few times.

But one night, a light came on in her house as we lay under the tree. Her head snapped up. "Run, Sirius."

"Wha-"

"RUN!"

I sprang up and jumped the fence, making a run for it. Willow seemed really panicky. I didn't know if we would be meeting again the next night, but I went anyway.

Willow met me, to my relief. But she looked upset. "My dad...he saw us," she whispered.

"What happened?"

"I'm not supposed to see you," she said. "My...my parents, they know the truth about you..."

My blood ran cold. "What do you mean, the truth?"

"YOU'RE A WIZARD!" she cried, not bothering to keep her voice down. She had tears running down her face. "I mean...I don't care, but they think you're dangerous..."

"So, what? You don't wanna see me anymore?"

She turned away. "I knew you wouldn't take this the right way. I knew you're overreact..."

"Talk about overracting!"

She slapped me across the face, then put her hands over her mouth to stifle another sob. "Oh, Sirius..."

"Fine," I said coldly, resisting the urge to rub my cheek (it HURT). "If you can't see me anymore, then don't even bother meeting me."

"Sirius!" I turned around and walked away.

Lucky for me, James sent an owl a few days later, and I was soon at the Potters. The first thing James asked me, as I stepped out of the fire (Floo Powder) was, "So, how's your summer been?"

I gave him a dirty look. "Don't ask."