Chapter 21

Shivering slightly in the coolness of a random corridor, Sirius followed James in pure darkness. He had been blindfolded upon coming out of the bathroom, and had been led away without a second thought. Several times he had attempted to remove it, but each time James had playfully swatted his hand away.

"You know, James, I would be a lot more comfortable with this if I knew where we were going. Not to mention if I knew where Anastasia was. And I would have appreciated food before being dragged out of my comforting surroundings," chided Sirius to his silent boyfriend. Every now and then he would hear a small chuckle, but never any more than that. "I don't know why I even bother," he muttered under his breath and allowed himself to be dragged along…well, wherever he was.

What in the world could James be planning? Why did he need to be blindfolded? There seemed to be no point, except it was freaking the hell out of Sirius, considering he wasn't a big fan of the darkness or blindfolds or any other type of restraint.

"Aha!" exclaimed James, coming to an abrupt halt. Gentle hands came to the back of the blindfold and pulled it off. Sirius looked around him and smiled. It was the place that they had first become friends, somewhere down near where the Slytherin common room was. Walking off as if to see what was around him, he remembered what had occurred that day. By all means it wasn't necessarily pleasant, but…not all happy endings had a happy beginning.

At the beginning, James Potter had not trusted Sirius Black in the slightest bit. It had taken a lot to prove that Sirius wasn't evil. In the end, it was his cousin who helped James see the light towards the young Black boy. He had been in a deep argument about why muggle born children weren't evil. Bellatrix had lost her patience with Sirius and had cursed him with a pretty nasty spell. It had caused Sirius to fly backwards and hit the wall with such force that he lost consciousness. When had awoken, James had been leaning over him, a look of concern, confusion, and doubt.

Sirius remembered how James had seemed to accept him after that confrontation, and then he had been introduced to Remus and Peter. They had, of course, become friends, and things and spiraled off from there. But ever since James started trusting him, Sirius couldn't help but think that his cousin had finally done something that was in his best benefit.

"What do you think?" James asked from behind him. Sirius spun around to face him, a smile still on his face. He loved being there, despite the actual dreariness of it.

"I think it's awesome. The first place you actually showed that you trusted me…kinda."

James smiled slightly too and came over to Sirius, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "I thought you'd appreciate it."

"Well," pondered Sirius, "considering it was the place where my life actually started looking good, I'd say this is possibly one of the best places in this school."

Giving a pretend pout, James pulled out the blindfold again and prepared to put it over Sirius's eyes again. Pulling back slightly, Sirius asked, "Wait, before you do that again, where is Anastasia?"

James sighed in frustration and then droned tonelessly, "She's with Lily and Remus again. They said they were going to give her a lecture in culture, whatever that is."

Oh. Culture? Inwardly, Sirius laughed. That was definitely something that his daughter would not gain solely from him and James. In fact, she probably wouldn't get any at all from her parents. It was times like that when Sirius could see why Lily and Remus went together so well. It was like they were meant to be. If only he believed in that kind of stuff.

With the blindfold reapplied and tied tightly, James led Sirius up some stairs, to the right somewhere, and then to the left. After doing what seemed like a big circle, they went up more stairs, to the right and then a u-turn to the left, only to go up more stairs. Then, to Sirius's surprise, they went left and went down another staircases. "How many bloody staircases are there in this school?" Sirius wondered as he was pulled after his crazy boyfriend.

After going up one more staircase, making Sirius quite winded, James stopped and pulled off the blindfold. They were in one of Hogwarts' many towers. Sirius looked out the window and turned back to James. "Okay, I lied," he said. "The other spot has absolutely nothing on this one."

James smiled and sat down on the bench. "I thought so." Sirius looked at him and just walked around in circles, letting the memories wash over him.

In his fourth year, Sirius had been incredibly depressed. His parents had all but disowned him, his brother was starting school, his grades were slipping, he was having love problems, his family kept on interfering with his life…it was just all fucked up. One night, after having enough, Sirius had decided that there was only one way out. Death. So he crept out of the dormitory and walked to the tower, prepared to kill himself. Before he had jumped, James came up from behind him and stopped him. Although that would seem like a depressing memory, it was just one way to show Sirius how much he was loved. That was the night that Sirius had realized how much his friends cared for him. It was also the night that James became introduced to the dog star.

Sirius turned to James who was intently watching him. Blushing slightly, Sirius walked over to sit next to James, who willingly scoot over to make room for him. "Why are you doing this?" Sirius asked quietly.

James shook his head at the question. "Because," answered James. "A chance to remember the good times we've had. Plus," he added, pulling something out of his pocket, "this seems like a good chance to give you one of your gifts."

Sirius looked at James curiously as he pulled something out of his pockets. It was small, square shaped, and hard. Considering he had absolutely no idea it was, he opened it carefully. When he got it opened, he found some muggle item that was round and had the name 'Switchfoot' on it and then 'Learning to Breathe' underneath it.

"It's a cd," explained James. "It makes music when you put it into a cd player. Considering it won't work here anyways, I figured you might enjoy it at my house, considering we have one. And I know it might not be your type of music, but I liked it. It's Christian music type stuff."

Sirius nodded and put it in his pocket after giving James a quick kiss on the cheek. "Where to next, Master Prongs?"

James laughed and pulled his lover to his feet. "What, no objections this time?"

Laughing in response, Sirius answered as James put the blindfold on, "Well, I figured if you wanted me to die, you would have found some way to inconspicuously push me down one of those thousands of staircases you dragged me up."

"Sorry," came James's response and he pulled Sirius out of the tower. "You're going to get to go down all of them now if it's any consolation."

"Well, not much of one, but what can I do? Probably lying anyways," he grumbled under his breath in response.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that," chuckled James and had to dodge a punch that was thrown rather wildly.

James indeed had not been lying. The trip to wherever they were going was all down, which made Sirius somewhat nervous, as he was not a big fan of stairs in the first place because he was usually really clumsy, despite his self-image. He heard a door opening and then felt a warm breeze as James led him outside.

"What could possibly have happened out here that was some big event?" wondered Sirius as he followed James. Pressing his brain for some memory that didn't seem to want to become known, he didn't notice where else they were heading until James stopped shortly. This time, though, he didn't take the blindfold off.

"James," Sirius said. When he heard no answer and felt no one near him, he began to panic slightly. "James, where are you?"

"Sorry, Siri," his voice came from behind him, as James came up again. "I dropped something because…well, I'm just like that." He laughed slightly, but still did not remove the blindfold. "I want you to guess where you are," he whispered in Sirius's ear.

At those words, Sirius wracked his memory even harder. What could possibly have happened outside that was worth remembering? Animagus. The word vibrated through Sirius's mind and he shook his head at his own stupidity. Of course! What else could it possibly be? The first time he had been able to transform into his dog form, also known as Padfoot, was outside, while he was waiting for Remus to finish studying. That would mean that they would have to be near the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

"James, we're at the edge of the Forbidden Forest," he said, and felt relief as James's fingers began to undo the knot in the blindfold.

"Very good, although that took longer than I thought it would," he teased slightly and ended up having to dodge a sissy slap from Sirius. He sat down and pulled Sirius down with him onto his lap. Sirius squirmed slightly, but managed to get himself comfortable.

"Thank you," he said softly after a moment of staring around in peaceful bliss.

James smiled slightly. "It's the least I could do for the only person who I could give my entire love, faith, and trust to." Then he began rummaging in his robes for his next gift for Sirius. He pulled out a small wrapped gift and handed it to Sirius.

He took it eagerly and shook it gently. Then he decided that it was safe to simply rip through the paper. When he got through the wrapping, he saw a box and he opened it carefully. Inside was a necklace with a pendant of a dog on it. Sirius looked at the dog carefully and then saw some engraving.

Thank you so much, Padfoot, for making my life complete.

As his eyes filled with tears of pure joy, Sirius turned and gave James a tight hug. "I don't deserve you," he whispered as the tears streamed down his cheek.

"Of course you do. You are such an amazing person, and you actually deserve more than this. However," he said in a light voice, "I am on a budget this year, so I'll have to get back to you on some of the things that I really wanted to do for you."

Sirius shook his head and kissed James on the lips, passionately. When they broke apart for oxygen, Sirius whispered, "I don't want anything else. I've got all I've ever wanted right now."

A.N. how sweet and sappy. In my opinion at least. Anyways, home for the holidays is the next chapter. Thank you again for reviewing. It really makes my day to hear your comments. Thank you and please continue reviewing.