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Chapter Fifteen: Memories and Dreams

"I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love."

- Henry Ward Beecher

Sirius sat quietly in front if the fire, letting it's fierce warmth rush over him, gazing into it's fiery depths as his mind drifted away, lost in a sea of memories and dreams.

"What are you thinking about?" a soft voice asked from the doorway. Sirius turned to see Anna, hairbrush in hand, leaning against the doorway.

"Everything."

"Everything?" She raised her eyebrows. "That's an awful lot to think about."

He smiled ruefully at her as she sat across from him and gently unravelled her hair from its bun. "Just thinking about before all this. Before all this shit happened. Before Azkaban."

She nodded encouragingly for him to continue while she ran the brush through her hair thoughtfully.

"I wish you could've met James and Lily. They were such good people." He winced in pain. "I should've known it was him. Why didn't I realise?"

"Shhh," she said as she lay down with her head in his lap. "Don't think about the bad things; regret is just a waste of energy. It's better to think of all the good things. Tell me about James and Lily."

He smiled wistfully. "Lily was great. She was pretty much the only person who had any amount of control over James. Seriously, he was whipped. Right from the beginning." He laughed. "I remember, he used to ask her out every single time he spoke to her. She always said no. Took him some mighty hard convincing to get her to finally agree. That was in seventh year, once he had deflated his head a bit."

"Ah. Yes. I've heard a lot about his big head."

"That would be from Snape, wouldn't it?"

"Severus," she reminded himAnd yes, all from Severus. Ooh, I've heard a lot about you two from Severus. But I always thought he was over-exaggerating."

Sirius chuckled mirthfully. "He probably wasn't. We were pretty bad, especially to him. But, then again, he gave it as much as he got it."

"Mmm, I can't imagine Severus being much of the submissive type...

"Certainly not."

"Tell me more about James and Lily. How did he get her to agree to go out with him?"

"Ah. The Master Plan. Well, he came to us during the train ride, claiming that this was the year he would finally get Lily to 'realise she is madly in love with me.' Or so he put it. And after some careful deliberation, and blackmailing one of her friends for information, he realised he really had to 'change his ways' and 'become a better man' if he was ever going to get her attention. So he enlisted Remus to The Cause."

"And why didn't he ask you?" she asked in mock-astonishment.

He snorted. "Because, my dear, deluded Anna, with the attitude towards women that I had at the time Lily would never get within ten feet of him. And he knew that. So. Where was I? Oh yeah. Remus started 'tutoring' James in how to act like a gentlemen. You see, Remus had always been the proper, courteous type of guy. Still is, I guess. Ah, the infamous Gryffindor chivalry..."

Anna snorted.

"So, anyway, that year James and Lily were Heads, which meant that they had to spend heaps of time together, much to the horror of Lily. Ah, you should've seen the look on her face when she found out James was Head Boy. Priceless. For a while it wasn't going to well, Lily thought that James was just being civil because of some prank, and it seemed that for every step they took forward, they'd take two back."

He paused for a moment. "That Christmas Eve there was a huge Muggle Massacre. You might remember it. It was in Surrey, Death Eaters murdered hundreds of Muggles."

"Ah, Sirius?"

"Mmm?"

"I was five."

"Oh. Anyway, Lily's parents were murdered. As you can imagine she was pretty distraught. Blamed herself for it, saying she should've gone home, should've been there. Thought it was her fault because she was a witch. Of course, she was totally wrong and we all told her so, but she wouldn't listen. She disappeared for a while into her room, didn't even go down for meals. And then late one night James is coming back from a kitchen raid he finds Lily crying her eyes out in the Common Room."

He shifted in the couch, fiddling with Anna's hair.

"Once he got over his shock he realised he should probably be doing the 'friend' thing, so he went over and comforted her. As much as I tried, and believe me, I tried, I never did find out what happened that night. But we all came down the next day to find Lily asleep in James' arms."

He grinned evilly.

"Remus still has the picture. I must get him to show Harry someday. When they woke up they were awfully embarrassed, and of course we teased them mercilessly for years. and the rest, as they say, is history."

"I see. So what happened to you all after Hogwarts?"

"Well. James and me both aced the NEWTs and went straight into Auror training. Lily was absolutely brilliant with Charms so she went into the Experimental Charms Department in the Ministry. Remus got top NEWT scores; he was made valedictorian, but of course because of his lycanthropy no one would accept him. He found some crappy job and moved in with me. Pettigrew," he spat the name, "He did pretty miserably in his NEWTs and got some mediocre job at the Ministry."

"Ah. I see. So," she smiled innocently, leaning forward to place enticing kisses along his jawbone. "Did you ever grow out of your wicked ways?" she murmured into his neck.

"Mmmm... Unfortunately, I did. I am now a firm believer in abstinence."

She bit her lip and looked up at him with 'come-hither' eyes.

He raised his eyebrow suggestively. "Miss Fair, are you trying seduce me?"

"Are you seduced?"

"Yes."

"Well then... I suppose I am."

A/N: Aaahhhh.... Thought I'd add in a bit of fluff at the end. Hope you liked it. Please review! Woah, what a short A/N...