Holly sat down on the floor and wiped the sweat from her face. She finally got the rest of the boxes out storage. She didn't have much, considering most of the boxes had books in them. Her one addiction was the written word. She had a lot of Muggle books that Lily had gotten for her for Christmas and birthdays. It was just a matter of unpacking all of them. The rest of the boxes contained clothes, kitchen stuff, and random knickknacks. She left six months after she graduated from Hogwarts, so she didn't have a lot of things of her own. Most of the things she had were left for her from her family and Lily's mom and dad.

"Ok, I've sat here long enough." she said aloud to no one.

A few hours later it felt like she had made a great improvement to her space. The only thing left to unpack was a box labeled "Holly's photo albums." She sat on the ground and opened the box carefully. There were four of them. Each one dedicated to two years at school, except for one which was dedicated to her seventh year and the six months after they graduated.

The first one was from her first two years at Hogwarts. She could see herself and Lily on Platform 9 ¾ waving excitedly next to that enormous Scarlet steam engine. She looked carefully thorough the book. Every first was there, the first time her and Lily had snuck away for a fly around the lake, the first Quidditch match they went to, their first time they mixed the wrong ingredients for their Potions' homework and ended up with a thick purple goop all over them. So many memories.

The beginning of the third book showed the beginning their friendship with the boys. There were several pictures of James looking at Lily and Lily ignoring him. They were all there. James looked love struck and proud with his messy short black hair. Sirius had this grin on his face, like he knew something no one else knew and wasn't going to tell. His hair falling slightly into his eyes. Small little Peter, who looked up so much to James and Sirius. He reminded her of a small lost mouse. Lily and her with their fiery red hair looking like they couldn't be happier. The only one who looked dramatically different was Remus. His face had less worries to it. His hair didn't have the gray streaks in them. And his eyes sparkled. He was still handsome, but this Remus looked more, carefree. If that was possible. He had always been the responsible one. He was, is, extremely smart. He graduated at the top of their class. She wondered from time to time why he wasn't in Ravenclaw. But she was happy that he was in Gryffendor. She had a crush on him for most of the time she knew him. And the image of his face when she told them she was leaving, had pained her the most. She couldn't look anyone in the face, but it was Remus who had brought the tears to her eyes. Holly got so lost in thought that she didn't hear the knock at her door, it wasn't until the person stood in front of her that she even realized someone was there.

"Remus." she said breathlessly, as she blinked back the tears in her eyes from thinking about that moment.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, just looking thorough some old pictures." she looked him in they eyes. Something was wrong. "What's going on?" she asked softly motioning for him to sit next to her.

"Nothing…well…nothing to be concerned about. I was wondering if you knew where James is." he said absentmindedly looking at the album she just put down.

"He went out with Sirius a few hours ago to go get their suits or something. Remus," she said placing a hand on the album and looking him in the eyes. His eyes always had fascinated her. They were light brown with gold circles around them. "what's wrong? You can talk to me."

"I know. I was just…."this was hard for him. "I was looking for James to see if I could live at his house for awhile." Holly was confused. She knew he moved a lot, and changed jobs frequently, but she never knew why. She figured it had to do with him getting really sick a lot. But he, or anyone else, had not told her why.

"Your more than welcome to stay with me for as long as you like."

"I couldn't…."
"Remus, we've been friends for how long? Come on, I insist. I can turn my extra room into a bedroom in no time." He thought about this for a long time.

"Your not going to let me refuse are you?"

"Nope."

"Alright then. Thank you." he said, she gave him a hug, and he gave her one back. "I forgot how nice your hugs are." he said lightly.

"Your sweet." she said kissing his cheek. "You can move in anytime."

"Is tomorrow ok?"

"Of course, tomorrow is my last day off before I start work, so it's perfect timing. I'm so excited." He gave her a big smile.

"What's in that one?" he asked picking up the last album.

"Our last year at Hogwarts and the time before I left. Wanna look at it with me?"

"Sure." he replied.

"Ok, but were moving to the couch, my back is killing me." They moved to the couch and she placed the book in between them. They didn't say much as they looked thorough the pages. Each one remembering something and thinking on it. That's one of the reasons why she loved to be around Remus, he made her feel like she didn't have to say anything. It wasn't until they got one page with the lot of them dressed up in formal clothes, that anything was said.

"That was such a wonderful night." she said remembering.

"It was alright." Remus said with a bit of bitterness in his voice. That was uncharacteristic of him.

"I thought you had a nice time."

"I did. But you know me. I'm not one to go to such events."

"But somehow you managed to go to this one. And you always look so handsome dressed up." Did she just say that out loud?

"You do too." he said awkwardly. Remus never really was into dating in school, he made it clear that he was there for an education. But that still didn't stop him from pulling his share of pranks.

"Remus, can I ask you something?"

"Never stopped you before." he said with a half smile. But she never got to ask her question, for a popping noise filled the room.

"See, I knew you'd be here." Sirius said with a look of triumph on his face. "Remus. I see you came and helped after all."

"Not really, I got here just as she was finishing." Sirius plopped down on Holly's other side. "Well, I had better get going. I'll see you tomorrow Holl." giving her a quick side hug. "Thanks again."

"No problem Remus. I'm really looking forward to this." she said excitedly, her enthusiasm made him smile, and he left.

"What's going on tomorrow?" Sirius said putting his head on her lap. She absently mindedly began to play with his soft hair, while looking down at him.

"Remus is moving in with me." Sirius sat up. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Why is he moving in?"

"He came here looking for James and he said he needed a place to stay, so I offered up my extra room. I'm really not using it. And I figured with the wedding and all…why not?"

"I'm just worried about him, that's all. Hey, what do you say we go out to dinner? My treat." He didn't want to talk about it.

"I don't know I'm so tired…"
"Please…come on. Afterwards you can come back here. Get into your pajamas and relax. Let me make it up to you for not helping you this afternoon."

"So your going to make me get up off of this really comfy couch, change, and then go out?" she said sinking into the couch more. "I don't think so."

"Ok, then. How about you go take a long shower, get changed, and I'll do all the work."

"What work?" she said suspiciously.

"Well, sense you don't want to go out…let's just say I've got an idea."

"Your crazy. But I think I'm on the losing side here, so alright."

"You'll love it, trust me."

"Always." she said as he pulled her to her feet. She walked into her bathroom, and turned on the shower. Throwing off her dirty clothes she stepped into the steaming shower. Holly could just feel the dirt coming off of her. Twenty minutes later she stepped out of the shower and grabbed a fluffy towel and wrapped it around her body. Picking up her discarded clothing she opened her door. And she walked quickly to her room. She had no desire for Sirius to see her naked. She stood in front of her closet for a good five minutes before she decided what she was going to wear.

"I like being able to where what I want." she mumbled to herself. After three years of wearing a uniform, she was thankful to put on something she liked. She put on a pretty black skirt that went to the middle of her calf, and a dark green tank top, no shoes. She walked over to her dresser and put on minimal makeup, it was just Sirius after all, and got out her wand. With a few flicks of her wrist she dried her hair and then ran a brush though it. She gave herself one final look in the mirror and walked down the hallway.

"Sirius, is it safe to come out?" she said coming into the living room regardless if he was ready or not.

"Almost I've just got to…wow." he said stopping setting the table to get a good look at her.

"Here, let me help. And my face is up here." Holly said taking the plates out of his hands.

"Sorry can't help it. But I can do this." he said taking them back. "I'm almost done. How about you go sit down and let me finish up." he said kissing her cheek.

"Fine." she said defeated. She sat down on her couch and picked up the old photo album she was looking at earlier. It wasn't very long before Sirius came and stood in front of her.

"Ok, now you can come over." He held out his arm, and she gladly took it. It was only five steps from the couch to the table, but she loved doing silly stuff like this with him. He pulled out a chair for her.

"Thank you Mr. Black."

"Your welcome Miss Evans. You know for someone who didn't want to make the effort to go out tonight with me, you put a lot of work into getting dressed for a stay home dinner." He had set up the table nicely and there was a wonderful dinner on it.

"I really didn't try that hard. Trust me. It's amazing what a shower can do."

The two had a pleasant dinner. They sat and talked as if nothing had changed between them at all. As if Holly never left, as if it didn't bother Sirius that Remus was moving in with her.

"Can I ask you something?" he said changing the tone of the conversation from light to a serious tone.

"Sure." she asked, she knew what he was going to ask.

"What were you doing when you left us? I mean what was so important that you had to go away?" she looked down at her plate. She didn't want to tell him. How would he react? Would he understand? Something inside of her told her that he would understand. But her caution talked her out of telling him.

"Stuff." she said quietly and unsure, picking up the dishes and taking them over to the sink and began to wash them.

"What kind of stuff?" he said taking out his wand making all of the dishes clean and put away.

"A lot of stuff." she said hopping up on the counter and sitting down.

"Can't you tell me?" he said standing in between her legs resting his hands just below her hips moving up and down gently and resting his forehead on hers.

"I did a lot of classified work for the Ministry." she said, hoping that would be enough for him to let it go.

"I see." He was hurt that she wasn't telling him everything.

"Sirius. It's not like I don't want to tell you. It's just…I could get into big trouble, and it's really depressing. And tonight is not the night for depressing subjects." she said wrapping her arms around his waist brining him closer.

"Ok. But you'll tell me eventually."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I know you lovely." he said slowly leaning in and placing a gentle, and innocent kiss on the lips.

She leaned into him and pressed her lips harder against his. Their lips moved together in a delicate dance for what seemed like forever. Sirius was the first to break away just to move slowly and lightly down her neck as he did this he picked her up and moved over to the couch and laid on top of her gently, supporting himself by one of his elbows. They began to kiss, deeper this time. She tugged on his bottom lip and her tongue met his. They both let out little noises of pleasure which encouraged the other to keep going. Sirius slid his hands under her shirt and brought it and her bra up only to expose the flesh beneath it. He began to explore the new territory, she let out little moans of pleasure as he worked his magic on her. Sirius slowly began to move his way down her stomach, when he got to the waist band of her skirt a loud pounding on the door took them so off guard that they both sat up in pure panic.

"One moment" she said pulling her shirt back down, and walking over to the door. Sirius sat there and tried to think of un-sexy thoughts to calm himself down. "What are you doing here? How did you find me? Go away." she said closing the door.

"Holly, please listen to me."

"NO. I'm busy."

"No, your not."

"Go away!" she said leaning against the door, trying to clam herself. She closed her eyes tight and tried not to cry, completely forgetting Sirius was there.

"Not until I talk to you." Sirius got up and he looked like he was going to kill whoever was on the other side.

"Sirius, please I can handle this." she pleaded.

"Holly please!" said the voice behind the door.

"If you don't leave I'll hex you." she shouted. Sirius gently moved her aside and opened the door to reveal a tall man with dark brown hair and eyes who looked extremely upset.

"Who's this?" the man and Sirius said together.

"It really is none of you business." she said hotly to the man.

"I'm Avrik. Who the hell are you?" he said ignoring Holly.

"Sirius Black. If you must know."

"Ah, the infamous Sirius Black. We finally meet."

"Finally? I barely know who you are." Avrik ignored Sirius, and turned to Holly.

"Holly, please, just let me in for five minutes. It's really important."

"No, you listen to me. Do you have any idea what you put me though? You don't deserve it."
"Do you really think that after all this, I'd come looking for you…" Holly let out a little "ha" "Ok, I would have. But this soon? Please, five minutes that's all I'm asking, then if you don't like what I have to say then I'll leave and you'll never hear from me again." He had a desperate look on his face.

"Five minutes but that's it." she said ushering him in. Sirius looked like he could kick Avrik's ass, all he needed was a reason.

"Is there any way it could be a privet word?" Avrik said kindly. Holly began to realize what this might be about. She turned to Sirius.

"Um…Sirius, would you…uh…mind?" she said uncomfortably.

"Of course lovely." he said kissing her cheek, marking his territory, and going to sit back down on the couch. He was far enough away so he couldn't hear anything, but close enough so if Avrik tried anything, he could still kick his ass.

Sirius sat down and looked intensely at the floor. Avrik was standing too close to her. "What the hell is he doing here? I don't even know him. The only thing I know is that he hurt Holly, and if he's trying anything I'll kick his ass. Because no one hurts her. No one. Oh god Sirius, calm down. Just keep breathing. She looks worried. What can he possibly want? Oh good. He's leaving." Sirius thought

"I'm sorry Avrik, but that part of my life is over." she said sweetly.

"I understand, but please, just think about it."

"I did, I'm not going chasing after that, it's not right. Goodbye." she said closing the door gently. Holly slid against the door and put her face in her hands. The next thing she knew she felt two warm arms wrap around her and she moved her head to Sirius' shoulder.

"What did he do, if he did anything to hurt you I'll go find him and…"

"That's not necessary." she said looking up at him. "It just shook me up. I wasn't exactly expecting him to show up like this so soon. Or ever."

"It'll be ok." he said playing with her hair. "What did that bastard want anyhow?"

"He wanted me to go out on a…um…"
"Date?"

"No! No. He wanted to pair up with me again, one last time, and do my old job again. But I told him no, that part is over. I never want to have to do that again." she said curling up against him more.

"Don't worry, you won't have to, whatever it was. You know after all this, I'm almost glad you'll have Remus around. Just incase."

"I think I need to get some sleep. I've got to fix up his room before he gets here." Sirius had a slightly disappointed look on his face. "Why do you look so disappointed?"

"Never you mind. You wouldn't want to know."

"Sirius! You have a sick mind."

"No, I'm a male. I can't help it."

"It's alright, who wouldn't want this?" she said standing up striking a sexy pose.

"You know your not making this any easer." he said laughing.

"Yeah I know. Goodnight Sirius." He stood up and hugged her.

"Are you sure you want me to leave? We could still have some fun…"

"Sirius."

"Alright. Goodnight." he said kissing her forehead and apperating away.

"Some things never change." she laughed walking into her bedroom.