Chapter 19 – Unearthing Secrets
Disclaimer: I do not own anything that belongs to J.K. Rowling.
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Sirius rolled his arm onto the other side of the bed but awoke abruptly when he found the sheets cold and empty. Fear briefly froze his heart – she's left me again – but then he heard someone muttering.
"I'm in love with Sirius Black and he loves me…" The voice didn't sound sure. "Sirius and I are lovers." It continued, as if trying to convince itself. "I am standing in Sirius Black's bedroom in the middle of the night and we have just made love..."
Sirius opened his eyes and scanned the room. Heather was stood at the window, gazing out at the street below. Sirius relaxed against the sheets.
"Heather? What are you doing? Come back to bed," he requested sleepily and Heather spun round in shock, her eyes wide.
"I didn't wake you, did I? I tried not to."
"How long have you been standing there?" Sirius sat up reluctantly, letting the sheet drop to his waist.
"Quite a while. I couldn't sleep."
"Why?"
"What is this? Twenty Questions?" Heather giggled hysterically and Sirius threw her a worried glance.
"What's wrong?"
She turned back to the window to gaze out, fiddling with the ties on his bedrobe that she had carelessly flung on. "I was trying to work out whether this was a dream," she murmured distantly. Sirius stayed silent so she hastily carried on. "It sounds corny, I know, but I was thinking back to all the times I had wished that I was here, with you. Tonight seemed like a dream," she shrugged, not knowing exactly how to clarify it further.
Sirius smiled. Getting up, he padded over to her and wrapped his arms around her, moving her back close to his chest. Heather sighed and leant back.
"I love you," he whispered into her ear and he could feel her smile.
"That's what the dream-Sirius used to say, every night. Whether I was at school, in Australia, here, that's what he used to say. I loved that dream but, when I woke up, I had this terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that told me it would never come true."
"Is that why you used to call my name out in your sleep?"
Heather turned around in his embrace to face him with raised eyebrows. "How do you know that?"
"Well, Mark and Murr-" Sirius stopped when he realised he hadn't told her he knew her workmates. "I mean, I heard you in the night," he finished with a smile that she saw through in an instant.
"You know Mark and Murray?"
"Who?" Sirius felt like his life was hanging on a small thread that was fraying at each end.
"You talked to Mark and Murray about me?"
He couldn't tell whether she was angry or not; her face was unreadable. He took his chances. "Well, they sort of talked at me. You remember that ice-cream fight we had in Australia?"
"How could I forget? It was the first time you kissed me."
"What? That was only a peck! Surely I kissed you more than that at school!" Sirius eyed her incredulously and she frowned.
"Sirius, you didn't kiss me at all at school! That was the first time you kissed me."
"Well, the other times were better, eh?" Sirius tried to worm himself out of the situation by changing the subject. "While you were getting the ice-cream, Mark ambushed me."
"That sounds like Mark!"
"And he told me about this girl who worked with him that was in love with me. He knew this, because she called my name out in her sleep."
Heather groaned and covered her face with her hands.
Sirius smiled. "They weren't going to tell me your name, but Murray accidentally revealed it when he was telling Mark off."
Heather grinned at that.
"Then they scarpered when they saw you returning."
"And that's why you were looking at me oddly? I thought you were wondering what in Merlin's name you were doing there with me when you could have been with any one of those attractive girls that walked by us and made sheep's-eyes at you."
"What girls?" Sirius frowned in confusion. "And what do you mean by that? You're the most beautiful woman in the world to me."
Heather blushed and smiled sweetly. "But I'm sure you didn't think that then."
"I don't have a clue what I was thinking then, or at school, or any of those other times before I-" Sirius stopped, his eyes becoming haunted, when he remembered Azkaban, but he carried on when Heather hugged him closer. "…before, when you ignored me because of that 'kiss', I believe."
She looked sheepish. "Hmmm… jealousy is a killer."
Sirius sighed. "I don't know what Pandora had planned at our Leaver's Ball, whether she had seen us on the dancing and had decided to hurt us both, or what. All I know is by that time I was attached to you and hers were the last lips I wanted to kiss. How she knew you were coming along the corridor though…"
"She probably heard my clunky shoes – I wasn't exactly being quiet." Heather clarified and Sirius shrugged.
"Well, it was a long time ago and I think we're over all that now, aren't we?"
"Mmmm…" Something clicked in Heather's head. "Is that how you got into the Ministry? Murray and Mark helped you?"
Sirius grimaced. "Yeah… It doesn't sound so exciting now that you know I caught an elevator to your floor and wandered aimlessly around until I found you; instead of me abseiling up the brick wall and dressing myself up as a security guard, killing lots of…"
"Have you been watching the tele-wotsit again?" Heather gave Sirius a suspicious look and he grinned sheepishly.
"Yeah…"
"I love you, Sirius. It seems like I always have."
Sirius snuggled her close, her head fitting underneath his chin. "So, now you know this isn't a dream, do you want to come back to bed? I'm freezing."
Heather's eyes widened. "Oh, gosh! I'm sorry. Come on, I'll keep you warm," she decided, dragging him back under the covers.
Sirius grinned. "That's what I was hoping!"
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Sirius adjusted his dress-robe collar in the mirror and grimaced. "I always look like a fop, when I put these on," he grumbled. "Are you sure we're not slightly overdressed?"
Heather opened the bathroom door and peered out, letting out a cloud of steam. "If you want to impress my parents, you have to look smart."
Sirius turned round and frowned. "Have you got a bonfire in there? What's with all the smoke?"
"Nothing," Heather squeaked and slammed the door shut again.
"Heather…" Sirius knocked on the door and tried the handle but it was locked. "We're going to have to leave soon."
"Ok!" Heather's voice sounded slightly muffled.
Sirius went back to struggling with the high collar on his black robes.
A moment later, Heather emerged and proceeded to put an outside cloak on before Sirius could see what she was wearing. "Are we ready to go?"
Sirius squinted at the skirts that were poking out from under her cloak. "Are you wearing a ball dress?" he asked with a smirk.
"No," Heather said shiftily. "Can we go now?"
He frowned. "Your hair is longer."
"A growth spell." Heather tentatively touched the coils of hair that were pinned up to the back of her head and grimaced. "My mother hates me with short hair."
Sirius smiled. "It looks nice." He sauntered over and kissed her on the cheek.
"Let's go then."
With that, they both apparated to the outside of Heather's parents' house.
"You know, I don't think I've ever been in Kent before…" Sirius mused.
Heather put her fingers to her lips and moved towards where her mother was stood at the front door.
"Heather! Finally! You know, you're two minutes late," Nolie chastised affectionately.
"Sorry. Err, Mum, may I present Sirius Black?" Heather asked nervously and Sirius stepped forward, allowing Nolie to see him more clearly in the gloom.
"Mrs Harris." Sirius bowed, feeling more than a little stupid.
"Mr Black." Nolie's greeting was not so gracious, but was still polite. "Won't you come in?"
Feeling like he was under extreme surveillance, Sirius entered the house.
"He's handsome, dear, but a little too charming, if you ask me," Nolie muttered in Heather's ear, before giving the guest a wide smile. "Can I take your cloak, dear?" she asked her daughter and Heather grimaced.
She took off the cloak and gave it to her mother, revealing a voluminous pink robe with white lace cuffs and collar, that managed to make her look like a blancmange.
Sirius held in the snort that was threatening to surface and sent her an amused grin. She glared at him.
"You look beautiful, darling! I knew that shade of pink would work for you," Nolie was exclaiming.
"Mmhhmm," Heather tried to smile.
"Yes, Heather, you look absolutely adorable," Sirius added, tongue-in-cheek, and Nolie smiled at him, obviously not recognising the sarcasm.
"Pumpkin, I didn't hear you arrive." Geoffrey Harris poked his head around his study door and did a double take at her attire. "You're looking… interesting."
Nolie shot her husband a glare as he emerged, smartly dressed in dark-green dress robes, to give his daughter a hug.
"Careful, Geoffrey! You'll wrinkle her," Nolie cried.
Sirius' lips twitched.
"And you must be Sirius Black," Geoffrey turned to him with a serious expression on his face.
"Yes, sir."
Geoffrey grasped his hand and shook it. "Very pleased to meet you," he said, his eyes twinkling. "I've heard a lot about you."
Sirius winced, thinking about the newspaper articles.
"My daughter says you're quite handy with money."
Sirius shot Heather a look. "She does?"
Geoffrey grinned and shrugged. "Well, she's certainly been singing your praises. I believe a small matter of finances was mentioned."
Sirius smiled.
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"Ugh," Heather pulled off her outside cloak and glared at herself in the mirror, thankful now that the evening was over.
Sirius grinned and pulled off his other shoe.
"I can't believe I still let her choose what I wear," Heather complained.
"Well, it was an important occasion – you wanted to keep her happy so she wouldn't hate me so much."
"She doesn't hate you." Heather argued.
"Much."
"Ok, maybe she's a little worried that my boyfriend was a jail-bird but…" Heather shrugged. She tried to sit down on the bed next to him but her skirts got in the way. She angrily pulled the robe off and sat next to him, giving him a hug.
Sirius snorted. "Did she pick those out too?" he asked gesturing to her pink underwear.
Heather rolled her eyes. "I have to match!"
Sirius laughed.
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"Harry? Are you there?"
"Yes, Sirius."
"How are you coping with school?"
Harry rolled his eyes. "It's ok. Voldemort hasn't struck again, my scar is not throbbing and I'm not having any nightmares."
Sirius frowned. "Don't joke about things like that. It has cost many lives…"
Harry looked immediately contrite and Sirius tried to smile.
"Anyway, I meant actually how is school going? How are you doing revising for your NEWTs? They're the most important exams of your life and-"
"Taking the role of the Godfather a bit seriously there," Harry interrupted with a grin. "Were you taught that speech by Mrs Weasley? Ron's been getting by in the earful every time he sets one foot out of line. He's too afraid to come out with me under my invisibility cloak now! Imagine, being scared of your own mother!"
"It appears to be doing him some good. His mock-exam marks were much higher than yours…"
"Oh, give it a rest, Sirius. Anyway, he has an advantage (if you could call having Hermione as a girlfriend an advantage!). She won't let him do anything with her until he's done his homework. The desperate looks on his face are classic!" Harry laughed.
Sirius grinned. "I can imagine. And you and Ginny are getting on well? You're not leading her astray, are you? Remember, she's your best-friend's only sister."
"How can I forget?!" Harry groaned. "Ron has already given me the 'talk'."
Sirius laughed. "And so he should! I gave the 'talk' many times to my sisters' boyfriends."
"And I bet your sisters gave your girlfriends the 'talk' as well, eh?"
"Nope. They had no need. I was the one who was corrupting the girls, not the other way round!"
"Ahem." Heather poked her head around the door behind him and looked at him pointedly. Sirius sent her a contrite look and she disappeared again.
"Oh. Is that Heather? She's definitely got you wrapped around her little finger!" Harry laughed.
"It appears you've been getting my owls then, despite the fact that you never reply…"
Harry looked sheepish. "I've been a bit busy."
"That's no excuse. I've been worried sick. And what do you mean I'm wrapped around Heather's little finger?!"
Harry's apologetic expression melted into laughter. "Admit it. You've been trained like a pedigree dog! She's got you under her thumb!"
Sirius scowled. "She has not… I'm the man in this relationship. I take control."
Harry snorted. "Yeah, and it shows…"
His godfather glared at him. "So, you're definitely coming here for the holidays?"
Harry nodded and Sirius leant closer to the fire, lowering his voice.
"That's great because I was thinking of proposing to Heather and having the wedding soon after, and I need a second best-man."
"Cool!" Harry grinned. "I don't have to make a speech, do I?"
Sirius grimaced. "Don't worry about that. I'm sure Remus is brewing up a storm of stories about my ex-girlfriends. In fact, he's probably collected the letters I got from some of them and is going to read them aloud. It going to be more like a show-and-tell than a wedding," he groaned.
"It's going to be classic!" Harry exclaimed.
"It's going to be memorable, at least."
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Heather looked at her watch for the hundredth time in the last five minutes and sighed, It seemed ages ago that Sirius had gone to pick Harry up from the train station and she was starting to get worried. Well, she had been nervous for the last couple of days about meeting Harry; not only was he the-boy-who-lived, but he was Sirius' godson and the only child of James and Lily Potter. It was quite a nerve-wracking thought. She fiddled with her wristwatch anxiously and looked at it again for the hundred-and-first time.
"Heather? We're back!" Sirius called from the front door and poked his head around the doorjamb to the lounge, where she was sat. "Ok. Heather Harris, Harry Potter." He ushered a young man into the room in front of him and Heather gasped; it was like seeing James again. At a second glance, Harry was slightly different to his father, and he had Lily's eyes.
Heather stopped staring when she realised he was scowling at her. He obviously didn't like to be gawked at like a beetle in a jar.
Heather gave Sirius a worried look and he nodded encouragingly.
"I'm sorry for staring, Harry. It's just that you look just like your father. It's amazing."
The scowl on Harry's face turned into a pleased grin. "Really?" Many people had told him so, but he never got tired of hearing it.
Heather nodded, glad the ice was finally broken.
Suddenly, as though he had recalled something, Harry clicked his fingers and pointed at her. "I know you! You're in that photograph that Professor Findal gave to me!"
Sirius gave the young man a disapproving look for obviously forgetting his manners.
Heather gave Sirius a soothing glance. "Florence gave you a photograph?"
"Yeah." Harry rooted through his rucksack and found the photograph, handing it to Heather,
She perused it and smiled. "Yes, that's us. All of us." She looked up at Sirius and smiled. He sat beside her and put his arm around her. "Gosh! Look at that look I'm giving you, Sirius!"
Sirius grinned. "I'm surprised I didn't catch on fire."
Harry sat on Heather's other side and leaned in to get a look at the young Heather himself. "So, you liked Sirius back then, did you?"
"Are you kidding?! I've had the hots for him since he was eleven years old." Heather sighed dreamily. "He was the best looking boy in the year… I used to write our names in hearts all over my work and got told off countless times by the professors."
Sirius laughed.
"HH for SB." She shook her head. "You know, he didn't know I fancied him until the Leavers' Ball," she revealed to Harry, who was grinning at this juicy gossip.
Sirius snorted, which brought Heather's surprised gaze to face him. "I knew long before that! I knew when you got James to give Florence his invisibility cloak as a favour for helping him with his homework and then borrowed it to get into our dorms and lie on my bed."
Harry guffawed loudly as Heather's mouth fell open.
"What?!"
"You heard. What you didn't know, was that we had the Marauder's Map and were following your every move," Sirius announced triumphantly.
Heather blushed to the roots of her hair. "I… But I… I didn't lie on your bed!" she squeaked. "I only wanted to… to…"
"To what?" Sirius asked knowingly.
Heather covered her face with her hands in embarrassment. "I only wanted to touch your things," she said, muffled, "to touch something you'd touched."
Sirius hugged her to his side. "That's so sweet. I'm not sure whether I should kiss you or report you to the authorities!"
Harry rolled his eyes. "So what else did you two get up to?"
Heather shrugged. "Nothing much at all. He hardly noticed that I existed. He always liked Florence better than me – there wasn't a day in which he hadn't salivated all over her."
Harry gave Sirius a questioning look.
Sirius frowned. "I noticed you just fine! And you did your own share of drooling, if you remember."
"True. But I didn't have my own harem."
"Harem?" Harry chipped in.
"Your Godfather was the original stud. He didn't have one girlfriend that lasted more than a week and, even after he had dumped them, they still worshipped the ground he walked on. And I was unfortunate enough to join them."
Sirius grinned. "You know you loved it! Besides, you never exactly told me that you liked me. If you had, I would have considered your offer."
"No, I didn't tell you I liked you. I just stalked you everywhere, collected things you dropped on the floor, drooled all over you when you were around, broke into your dorms to sleep on your bed-"
"Hah! You admitted it!" Sirius interrupted.
Harry could not speak through laughing.
Heather sent Sirius a 'look' and continued. "And, when I did my best to get your juices flowing at the Leavers' Ball, you left my side and next thing I know, you were kissing someone else."
"Sirius! You didn't!"
Sirius looked grumpy. "I told you that wasn't my fault. Anyway, I thought you were some kind of tease, flirting with me like that and then, when I went to the bathroom, dancing with other men and then ignoring me for the rest of the evening. I didn't like being thrown over for Edwin Hawley, of all people."
"You remember his name?" Heather asked, surprised.
"Of course I bloody do! I'd never been treated like that before, or since," Sirius growled. "And you'd better not do that again."
Heather grinned. "I don't know… I always had a thing for James and with Harry here…" She put her arm around the young man and sent him an adoring smile, which Harry cheekily returned.
Sirius scowled. "Get your hands off my woman."
"From the original stud to the original caveman," Harry said cheekily.
Heather grinned and hugged Sirius to her side.
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Authors' Notes:
Hi all!
Thanks for waiting so long! I can't really say I'm the most reliable person in the world when it comes to updating, so I'm really pleased that you've decided to stick around for the long haul!
Special thanks to:
KeeperOfTheMoon, sapphireskies, Hopeful Writer, The Elfin Child, caytebelle, Sam, Sunkistgrl, Kendis, Drachenaugen, UbsessedWitFire, Harriet Potter, Starlight, PQ, Cate O'Hara, and Annoriel.
You all rock!
Love,
Squirrel. xxx.
P.S. I have a feeling that the next chapter will be the last, so I'll be able to devote more time to getting Martha's ass in gear re: the Remus fic!