Disclaimer:We do not own this. So go and sue someone else.
A/N: This chapter goes out to Fanficluverr and Tigerwhisper, the only reviewers who aren't inour family. Thank you so much.
Warning: This story will contain SLASH. Man on man action. Got it?
Tension in London
Around nine p.m. Lily and James started to get worried. Pamela had called around eight, wondering if Sirius was going to show up for their date, and had sounded surprised when they didn't know where he was.
"What should we do, James?"
"I'm sure he's fine, Lil. He's a big boy, he can take care of himself."
The next morning, he still hadn't shown up.
"Maybe you were right, Lily. Lets call Adhara and let her know and go over to his work, see if they know anything."
When they arrived at the Ministry of Magic, they were escorted into Cindy's room. She looked pale and withdrawn, which James thought was a bad sign.
"We're looking for our friend, Sirius Black," James said, "he's been missing since last night. We were just wondering if you had seen him or if you know where he is."
"I'm sorry," she sniffed, "but I'm afraid I can't help you. Sirius is an Unspeakable, and we are not allowed to disclose any information about any of his missions, or his location. In fact, if he does go missing, we destroy his dossier and deny any knowledge of him. If any of the work that the Unspeakables do gets out in the open, the whole wizarding world would be in an uproar, and our government would collapse. It's much better this way, believe me.
Lily's face was turning red with anger. James put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Let me handle this, okay?" Lily took a deep breath and nodded in consent.
"Look," James said evenly, "I'm asking you nicely. I understand that you can't give us his exact location, but can you give us a clue to where he is?"
"I'm sorry," Cindy answered curtly "but rules are rules." James winked at Lily and together they pulled out their wands and directed the tips towards Cindy's head. James reached across the table and grabbed Cindy's wand before she could grab it.
"We did ask nicely," Lily reminded her at the sharp intake of breath that was omitted from her mouth.
"And now we're going to ask you again . . .. WHERE IS SIRIUS?" Cindy's eyes shifted slowly from Lillian's hard green ones to James' cold hazel. After a long pause she slowly rolled her chair over to a long panel of wall that was especially ugly, painted a foul green , and sporting a large portrait of the first Minister of Magic. Here she tapped lightly three times about two feet from the bottom in the center. The piece of swung away to reveal a series of buttons on which Cindy punched in a code. After a few seconds, the wall slowly sank silently into the floor to reveal a huge filing cabinet. She walked over to the draw labeled Aldin - Boulfren, and punched in another code. The draw swung open and she reached inside and withdrew a large folder and threw it on the desk.
"I always liked that kid," Cindy said softly " so make sure that you find him because this is gonna cost me my job, and its gonna cost him a date with me" she finished with a forced smile. Lily grabbed the folder, and she and James yelled their thanks as the bolted from the room. When they were outside, the paused to see what clues the folder held.
"Look," James said as he extracted the last piece of paper in the file. In what appeared to be a woman's handwriting was written "The base of the Thames River" With a quick glance around, Lily grabbed James' hand and apperated.
They apperated face to face with a man who looked like the devil himself. He snarled in surprise as he dropped the ropes he had been using to bind an unconscious Sirius, and quickly pulled out his wand. From seemingly out of nowhere, Two rough looking men jumped out of bushes where they had been keeping watch for intruders, and the battle was joined. Lily and James ducked and scampered, trying to avoid the flashes of red and green light flying around them while they raced to get to Sirius' side. James managed to stun the bigger of the two thugs and Lily dropped a large tree branch on the other's head while James raced to head off Diablos who was trying to make off on Sirius' motorcycle. Just then he heard a yell from behind him, but he didn't look back, he was too busy trying to get to the man who had tried to murder his best friend. But it was too late. Diablos had vanished; apperated with a clean "pop." James twisted around frantically; trying to make sure Sirius was all right, when he saw a slim redheaded figure on the ground. His stomach dropped out from under him; He had been too busy trying to act the hero, that he hadn't even noticed when the woman he loved was hurt. He rushed over to her, praying she wasn't dead. He didn't start breathing again until he noticed the slight rise and fall of her chest and her eyelids flutter. Sirius rushed over to them, having finally woken up and finding that Diablos hadn't had enough time to tie the ropes holding him tightly enough.
"Ennervate!" he mumbled under his breath and let out a huge sigh of relief when Lily pushed herself up into a sitting position.
"What..." She mumbled, "Sirius! Oh good, you're ok!"
But Sirius had a very strange look on his face. The thought of losing Lily from a stupid mistake on his part was filling him with self-hatred, and before he could stop himself, he was taking it out on her.
"Never. Do. That. Again. This is my deal, Lily Evans, and I can handle it just fine without you." And he apperated without a word of thanks.
The days that followed were awkward since Lily and Sirius were not on speaking terms. James tried to ignore their fights and acted as though nothing was wrong, which added a phony cheerfulness about the place. The fake happiness was suffocating and was almost enough to make Lily gag. Adhara visited frequently to comfort Lily and to distract her from her depression.
Sirius spent his days either at work or out with Pamela. Every time she called Lily would frown and try to find comfort in James strong arms. A few weeks later Lily found herself watching a rather boring movie when Sirius walked in. Looking up slowly she returned to the television, choosing to ignore him.
"Lily, look," Sirius started slowly.
" No, don't. I'm sorry, you were right. It was none of my business and I should have stayed out of it." Lily said, cutting his apology short.
" Yeah, well, I could have been nicer about it. You were just trying to help. I just didn't want to talk about it."
" Ok, it's completely gone from my mind, so will you forgive me?" Lily said with a small smile. This was the first smile she hadn't forced in weeks.
" Only if you forgive me for my attitude." Sirius said with an identical grin.
" I guess we are both forgiven." Lily said, her beautiful smile widening.
" Goody." Sirius said with a sly grin replacing his relieved smile.
" Sirius…" lily said sternly trying to look tough and hide her grin at the same time. The results were amusing. With a loud yell Sirius leaped unto the couch, wrestling Lily into a rather uncomfortable position. Lily screeched happily while trying to swat him with a pillow, and failed miserably. Both breathing heavily, they paused for a break, grinning idiotically at each other. Sirius gazed down at Lily, stroking her porcelain skin with a trembling hand. He brushed a strand of thick, red hair out of her eyes. Desire for her overwhelmed him and he leaned towards her with one thing on his mind. His eyes flew open when he realized she had moved towards him with the same purpose. It was a small, slight kiss, but the passion and heat behind it almost brought Lily to tears. She had never felt this before and the new feelings both scared and thrilled her. A banging on the door caused them to spring apart guiltily. Sirius leapt up from the couch, standing with his hands in his pockets. He blushed in shame as James walked in smiling. Looking at Sirius his grinned widened considerably. Lily stared at James. She knew she loved him but she was confused about the feelings she had for Sirius, he had always attracted the more rebellious side of her. The one she kept artfully hidden. James looked great in his fashionably baggy blue faded jeans, and tight fitting white t-shirt. He was gorgeous, and for a minute her worries about Sirius disappeared. James' voice woke her out of her dreamy state.
" OOO... Sirius, you're blushing like mad! What happened to you?" James asked, completely unaware of what his two friends had just experienced. Sirius mumbled something not completely understandable.
" Pamela just called." Lily said in a teasing voice, which was, obvious to Sirius, quite forced.
"OOOOOO!" James sang, wagging his eyebrows up and down and looking quite idiotic in the process. "What ever did she want?" he asked, with his eyebrows still in motion.
" Nothing much." He called as he exited the room.
" Aww.. You're no fun. C'mon tell! Did she whisper sweet nothings in your ear and then tell you she was a secret Russian spy and loved your dangerous ways?" James said cheerfully.
" Dork." Sirius made sure to say this loudly enough so James could hear him.
" What can I say, I do try." James called. " So, Lily, you and Sirius make up yet?"
" Yeah, we made up." She said, reaching up to give him a small peck on his cheek. He wrapped his arms around her waist and mumbled something that sounded like good into her shoulder.
" Wow, you smell good, but kind of like a guy." James said a few minutes later.
" Yeah. I, um, borrowed some of Sirius' cologne." She said slowly, pulling back to mess up his hair even more. " Well, its very nice but I do feel a little weird kissing someone that smells like Sirius," He said with a laugh.
" Fine, next time I'll use yours, Ok?" she said, still smiling.
" Sounds good, I guess." James muttered still muffled by her shoulder.
The next morning James had left for quidditch practice leaving his two best friends behind in awkward silence. Sirius walked into the kitchen to find Lily wearing a cute, short, flowy, black skirt topped with a bright green, low cut t-shirt that set off her eyes perfectly.
" Good morning." Sirius said after he started breathing again.
" Says who." Lily responded grumpily. James had once again left a huge mess from his breakfast and she was having difficulty cleaning it up with her wand. Sirius looked over and laughed until he saw Lily glaring at him.
" Here, lemme help." He said, after quickly dropping his smile.
With a flick of his wand everything was clean and put away, leaving Lily more frustrated than ever.
" How come my wand won't work?" she said, exasperatedly.
" Did you get it inspected yet?" Sirius asked.
" Oh, crap!" she moaned.
" C'mon I'll take you." and he grabbed her hand, apperating them both to the inspection office. There he saw an awful sight. In line in front of them was Pamela and he knew one of his secrets was about to be uncovered.
" Sirius!" the girl in front of them cried turning around. Lily stared in awe at a girl wearing a very tight bright red shirt and half of a leather miniskirt.
" Oh… er…hi Pamela," Sirius muttered. Lily could not believe that this was Pamela, she looked so...so easy. The girl glared at Sirius and slapped him across his face.
"You haven't called me in days!" she squealed. "And now I find you out and about with this red haired trollop!"
Lily stared. Pamela Banderton had just called her a trollop. The woman couldn't even control her boobs, for heavens sake!
"Uhm..well..I thought you had a photo shoot, and then filming, and I just lost track of the days. And don't call her a trollop! This is Lily, my best friend's girlfriend."
Pamela sniffed as she looked Lily up and down and flounced off. Sirius shrugged and turned to Lily who was staring at Pamela's retreating back.
"You were dating Pamela BANDERTON?" she roared.
"What, so you're allowed to date other people but I'm not? Talk about double standards."
Lily smirked up at him sarcastically and dragged him off to the wand inspection line. Five minutes later her wand was ready for action once more. She grabbed his hand and they apperated back to their flat.
"Sirius, we need to talk about what happened the other day..."
"Uhhhh... I think we both know what happened, Lillian. You want me."
"I know, but I shouldn't... I mean, I love James."
"Then if you love him, what's to talk about?"
She sighed, gave him a hug and moaned into his shirt.
"I know, you're right. I'm just being silly." She smiled sadly up into his cold gray eyes and walked off to her room. Sirius collapsed onto the worn couch. It had been so hard to tell her to stay with James when he had really wanted to say just the opposite. But he loved James and Lily and could never do anything to hurt them. Or so he hoped. Just then James walked in the door and said the words Sirius had been dreading since he turned eleven.
"I'm gonna ask her to marry me."