The Secrets of the Hufflepuff Common Room

He found her sitting on a bench with her head in her hands, she was really upset.

"Go away Sirius." she said with a shaky voice.

"I'm sorry Holly." He said sitting down next to her wrapping his arm around her shoulders. She didn't move. She was crying.

"Please don't cry. Your too sweet to cry." She leaned into him a bit.

"Why didn't you stop?" she said wiping a tear away.

"I'm not going to lie to you. I never have, never will for that matter. I don't know. I think I've had too much to drink." He paused and thought about it for a moment. "I guess it's one of my fondest memories of us."

"Your perverted." she said moving quickly away from him.

"No. Holl, please let me explain."

"Fine. Always do for some reason. Even if it's obvious that you're making up some story to get out of trouble."

"I know. But please let me go on."

"Ok. Fine." she gave up. He was going to tell her one way or another.

The Hufflepuff Common Room was swarmed with people.

"I guess this isn't an exclusive party as we thought." James said as he, Sirius, Peter and Holly walked into the room.

"Looks like your cousin's even here Sirius." Peter said quietly. He was considerably smaller than both James and Sirius. Holly didn't know why he even came. He normally hated the idea of large crowds, originally he said he was staying behind with Remus and Lily to study for their final exams the next morning.

"Great. Just what I need." He said hotly. Sirius was the first one in his family not to be in Slythern. He came from a well to do pure-blood family, but he left home for some reason three years ago and went to go live with James and his family.

"Just ignore them. Common, let's go have some fun." Holly said grabbing Sirius' arm and taking him over to a crowd of people.

"Ok, lovely." They began to talk to some other people they knew through James. James knew everybody, mainly though his popularity in his Quiddtich playing.

"Hey, you guys want something to drink?" Bryan Arden asked. The four of them said yes. And they were presented with goblets of mead and firewhiskey, and they gladly accepted. Music soon began to fill the room. James grabbed Holly, drinks and all, and began to dance with her.

"Well, Mr. Potter, I had no idea you even knew other girls existed outside of my dear cousin."

"I know they do. But why would I want to look at any other when I know I'm going to marry her."

"James, Lily hates you."

"No she doesn't, you just watch and see."

"I think you've had enough." she said trying to take away his third glass. But James just spun her around. Holly got really dizzy and told James she had to sit down for awhile. She found a bright yellow couch that was unoccupied by couples making out and sat down. Bryan came by again and filled her glass. She politely thanked him. She felt so warm and tingly all over. She shut her eyes for a moment to soak in the felling of well being.

"And why would my lovely be sitting here drinking by herself?" she felt someone sit next to her.

"Why do you call me that Sirius?" she said looking at him.

"Well it's true. Your lovely."

"Thanks, but so are a lot of the girls you flirt with. And you don't flirt with me. So, drop the pet name."

"Ok. But I'm going to start calling you gorgeous, or beautiful, or sexy, or striking…"

"I'm going to strike you if you don't stop."

"You don't think your pretty do you?"

"No. But it's no big deal. How much have you had tonight?" He looked slightly off, kind of tipsy. Sirius never let anything get out of his control. "Are you feeling ok?"

"I'm fine. I've only had one drink." she gave him a look of disapproval. "ok, I had two, then two more." she laughed. They rarely did this, go out drinking. It was just something fun they did once in a great while. This was the first time they had gone out in the past six months. There was too much to do.

"How much have you had Holl?"

"I have no idea…" she started to feel the music pulsing through her.

"I think you had better stop."

"Nawww…I'm fine. Don't worry about me. I think I'm going to go back to dancing now." She said draining her glass and giving it to Sirius as she moved to the floor and began to dance with Bryan. They danced close together and Holly felt so alive, so wonderful.

The next thing she remembered was sitting down on one of the Gryffendor couches leaning against Sirius and him urging her to drink something.

"I've had enough to drink…"she said weakly pushing away the glass.

"You need this. Trust me. It's a sobering up potion."

"Yuck!" she exclaimed as she drank it down coming to her senses immediately, but starting to feel very sleepy. There was one draw back to that potion, it made the drinker very sleepy.

"What happened? How did I get back here? Where's James and Peter? Are they ok?" she said leaning more into him. His arm was around her waist, she rested her head on his shoulder and stared into the fire.

"James and Peter are fine, they're coming back now. There working on a memory charm on everyone at the party."

"Why would they need to do that?"

"Because of you lovely."

"What did I do? The last thing I remember doing was dancing with Bryan."

"Well…you did do that."

"Sirius. What happened?" She looked into his eyes, filled with fear. "I swear, if this is one of your stupid pranks I'll…"

"No. I'd never lie to you. You should know that."

"I do." she settled back into him. The potion was starting to take full effect on her.

"You got up on one of the benches and began to…well…strip."

"What!" she said half panicked half asleep.

"Don't worry, I got you down as fast as I could…the boys didn't exactly make it easy for me to get to you. But James, Peter, and I decided that you didn't need that reputation, so they stayed behind and fixed everyone's memory."

"Thank you Sirius." she said closing her eyes and falling asleep on his shoulder. He didn't want to move her. He summoned his warm blanket and he wrapped his other arm around her.

"I'd do anything for you, lovely."

"I really don't mind you calling me that." she mumbled. He let out a short laugh. He smiled as he kissed the top of her head.

James and Peter soon walked in.

"Did you fix everything?" Sirius asked quietly so he wouldn't wake Holly up.

"Everything is fine. Did you tell her?" Peter said.

"Yeah. She knows."

"We had a hard time with some of them, so we fixed it so now they remember it was your cousin on the table rather than Holly." James said proudly.

"Nice."

"Well, I'm off to bed, you coming?" Peter asked heading up stairs.

"No, I'm going to stay with Holl, tonight. If I move, she'll wake up."

"Ok, goodnight Sirius." James said moving towards the stairs. "Sirius. You must really like her."

"How so?"

"You stopped her from getting completely naked in front of people. If it was any other girl, would you have really done something to stop her?"

"Depends on who it was. Come on, your making me sound like a pervert."

"I know your not, but come on. I've noticed how you look at her when she's not looking. Let's just say that. I'll see you in the morning."

"Night." He leaned closer to Holly and got comfortable, with her in his arms. It did feel nice to have her there. He had many girlfriends, but there was just something missing with all of them. She was so soft and warm. Just like her personality…most of the time. She had her moments, just like everyone else. With one last thought of the night's events he fell asleep with a smile on his face.

"So one of your fondest memories of me, is me getting drunk and taking off my top?" Holly said hotly.

"No. On of my fondest memory of you is being able to take care of you. You're so strong all the time, call it sick and twisted, but seeing you so venerable and weak, just made you more perfect to me. And I liked, like, taking care of you." he said standing up and brining her into a hug. She had to admit to herself that she did feel safe with him.

"I'm sorry Sirius."

"For what?" He said laughing a bit.

"Being such an idiot."

"Were all idiot's. Every last one of us."

"You don't mean that."

"Yeah, me, James, you, Lily, Remus."

"You really think Remus is an idiot?" She said looking up at him, she missed playfully arguing with him.

"I suppose…in his own way."

"So I can tell him you said that right?" His face panicked for a moment, then his famous playful look came on.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Wanna bet?" she broke free of his arms and ran fast back to the club to go find Remus. Sirius took after her. He caught up to her and they were pushing each other to get into the club first. Holly, being the smaller of the two, was able to get past him and back to the table first.

"Remus! Remus! You'll never guess what Sirius said about you! He said you were an…" Sirius covered her mouth with his hand and she collapsed into a fit of giggles.

"I see you two made up. And were apparently back in school." Remus said laughing at the two of them.

The group said their goodbyes for the night a few hours later. James and Lily went home, Remus went back to his new apartment, and that left Holly and Sirius standing, waiting for the other to leave first.

"So, where are you living now?" She asked him.

"Actually not to far from here. I could even walk home, if I wasn't so lazy."

"That must be nice." She said kind of swaying. James, Sirius and her had pounded another two rounds after her and Sirius little tiff.

"Ok, lovely, I think I had better get you home."

"I can get home by myself." She said trying to move, but stumbling instead.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of you." He said catching her.

"That's not ness…"

"Please, I insist. Besides it'll be nicer than going home alone." He wrapped his arm around her waist to steady her as they apperated to the door of her apartment. "Where's your key lovely?" she handed it to him and he unlocked the door. He was so gentle as he lead her to her room. He picked her up and placed her under her covers. He began to walk out of the room.

"Where are you going?" she asked sweetly.

"I was going to crash on your couch. If that's ok with you."

"No. It's not ok." He was shocked by her response. "Come sleep with me."

"You don't have to ask me twice." A huge grin spread over his face. He slipped off his shoes and his shirt and crawled under the covers next to her.

Sirius laid on his side and draped his arm around her. Her back was a facing him, but she snuggled close to him none the less. The last thing he heard before he fell asleep was her mumble "your cuddly."