Meg, wordlessly, took Sirius's hand and led him to her office. She was glad she wasn't by an altar with Snape, about to get married, but she was still very confused about what had happened. Why had she been marrying Snape? What had he done? And why did Sirius look sick?
Meg sat down, voicing her very first concern. "How could I let him do that?"
"How could you not have?" Sirius asked, answering her with a question. "You see, you can thank my godson, Harry, for my being here in the first place. He told me, in a letter, that you were going to marry one of his teachers, Snape. He said he and his friends thought he was using a Love Potion. And Harry was wrong on that account, I'm pretty sure. It was a Romance Charm, wasn't it?"
They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds. Sirius put his arm around Meg, who closed her eyes and tried to stop the flow of emotion running through her.
Meg suddenly remembered something. She remembered, vaguely, Snape holding her in his arms while she cried onto his shoulders, him telling her she had been put under a Romance Charm by him, and that she wasn't believing him. She opened her eyes, staring at Sirius.
"Yes…" she whispered. "I remember. I do."
She looked at Sirius, concern showing through his tired, gray eyes. She knew that not many people could, or would even try, but she saw the handsome-ness shining through the face hollowed by Azkaban, sadness, and hunger. Next thing she knew, she was in Sirius's arms, though she had no memory whatsoever of going there. He was rubbing her back; she did not want him to see her cry.
"I'm worried about you, too, you know," she said tearfully.
"Don't worry about me," said Sirius quickly. "I'm just…well…don't go yelling at me, Meg, but I've been living in a cave…and eating mostly rats…" He trailed off.
"Heavens, why?" said Meg.
"For Harry," said Sirius, shrugging. "Anyway…no matter. What I want to say is that you should never let Snape do anything more to you, ever. Try to stay out of his way."
"All right," said Meg, climbing onto Sirius's lap and kissing his cheek. "I was just wondering where you were. Are you sure you're not sick? You certainly must be hungry."
Suddenly, the door of Meg's office opened. It was Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Andrea. Sirius jumped when he saw them. He ran over and hugged them each in turn. Harry found himself hugging his godfather rather hard. His sister, Andrea, said, "Hi, Sirius. Pick me up."
"Oh…fine, then…" Sirius laughed and picked Andrea up, hugging her some more. Harry scowled at her as Sirius put her down. Andrea smiled at Harry and kissed Ron.
"What was that for?" said Ron, rubbing his cheek.
"Because I wanted to." Andrea laughed and turned back to Sirius. "Well, we knew you two would be in here, you know, because Dumbledore said so. So we went to find you."
"How was the Yule Ball?" Sirius asked her. Meg stood up behind him and latched herself onto his arm. She was rather shorter than he was. Andrea laughed and kissed Ron's cheek again. Ron glared at her and inched away slowly.
"Well, most of it was rather wonderful, wasn't it, Ron?" Andrea asked Ron, laughing. "Ron and I danced all night. Ron kept trying to get the cookies, but I stopped him. He still thinks they're made of dried doxy droppings. And, would you even believe it, he trampled my feet."
"It was fun with Harry and I," said Hermione. "Harry didn't step on my foot once."
Sirius smiled. "I wish I could have gone. What I think the Romance Charm does is, when you see your true love's face, the spell's broken. If I had been there, Meg wouldn't even have had a chance to propose to Snape. And then there wouldn't even have been a wedding."
"I proposed?" Meg said incredulously. "I thought he proposed to me." She hugged Sirius in a rather little girl like way, and they held each other. Meg sighed and said sadly, "That's even worse than him proposing to me and my agreeing. I just can't believe I let him do that."
"It's okay," said Sirius in a would-be calm voice. "I think the Romance Charm is harder to resist than the Imperius Curse if somebody does it correctly. At least, I think it is…"
Harry couldn't help laughing at the look on Sirius's face as Meg pulled him closer to her and kissed him rather dramatically right on the lips. Hermione rolled her eyes, probably at the fact that there were three couples in the room and two thirds of them kissing. Indeed, Andrea and Ron were kissing again, and Harry and Hermione looked at each other, laughed, and watched it all.