A/N: Well I intended to have this uploaded a few days ago, but I was having a problem with the document manager... Sort of got it fixed. :)

So here we have a new chapter. Enjoy.

And I shouldn't have to say it every time but... Please Review this story! Really... It would make my Christmas. You don't want to ruin Christmas do you?

Chapter 34

"I absolutely love that Kerstan kid"

My eyes flickered up from the book I was reading, or more correctly with Sirius in the room the book I was trying to read. Sirius had perched himself on the edge of the desk in my classroom, and was twirling his wand rather lazily over his fingers. I wondered briefly at the safety issues of doing that. I didn't want to be on the wrong end of him accidentally setting it off. Were wands like guns? If you dropped one did it go off?

"And why do you love Kerstan?" Realizing that for the moment at least the book Irma had given me would have to wait, I shut it and placed it back on the desk. Smiling grey eyes met my own, his lips slanted.

"He just reminds me of someone." As he shook his head, dark hair flew into his eyes which he pushed back. "Maybe it's me? Imagine it, a little me running around the place"

"Well luckily for the world you haven't started to reproduce yet." A dramatic sigh slipped past my lips. The idea of a little Sirius running around was actually frightening. The child would cause enough trouble to bring the British to their knees, only to have them thank him afterwards. Though when the image of a little Sirius entered my head I couldn't help but admit to myself that he would be absolutely adorable.

"Well we could always work on that." The twirling of the wand had stopped, and instead Sirius had ducked his head in close to me, the silver eyes heated. It was rather obvious the direction his mind was wandering, not to mention the direction his lips were going.

"So you love Kerstan because he reminds you of yourself?" I asked the question at the moment just before Sirius's lips touched my own, causing him to pull away with a heavy sigh. I chose to ignore the disappointed look in his eyes. It flickered away from hurt to a smile, and he was back twirling his wand and smiling at me.

"That must be it. He seems so familiar to me, though I can't really place it"Briefly I wondered if this was a problem with his memory, if the boy was sparking some old memory that was slipping from his grasp. Or if it was just that the boy reminded him in some small way of himself or one of his old friends, and he just couldn't decide who it was.

"He does look like you." It was true to a certain extent. Kerstan Faust had black hair, and his eyes were light at least, though I couldn't really remember if they were grey or blue... Indeed if I were looking for similarities even his nose and chin bore a slight resemblance to Sirius. It was his happy manner though that really reminded me of Sirius.

"Not as attractive as me though." Sirius snorted.

I chuckled softly, as vain a comment as that was, it was also true. Kerstan was a happy boy, everyone got a long with him, but he was in no way going to be a looker. But that was of course not important.

"Maybe he's your long lost cousin or something"

The comment had been intended as a joke but Sirius's eyes darkened considerably, and the wand stilled in its motion. Inwardly I winced, most of Sirius's family had been rather negative with the few exceptions of Tonks, her mother, Draco and some of the very distant family.

"I don't think so." Sirius slipped off the desk, his back turned to me.

"Maybe he's your son? After all you had plenty of opportunity to get some poor woman pregnant." I smiled as I said this, but there was enough of a bitter sound to the question.

Any sound of jealousy in my voice always immediately perked Sirius up. It was like proof that his flirtations were working on me. When he turned around he was smiling brightly.

"You should know well enough that there is no way that I could have produced an eleven year old boy when I was dead. Unless Kerstan is almost twelve, and then I would have had do have..." Sirius looked confused, staring at his fingers trying to count out the months on his hands to see if it was even possible. Frustrated he finally gave up, dropping his hands down to his side. "It's not important anyway since I didn't have sex with anyone after getting out of Azkaban. For that matter I hadn't with anyone since before going in."

I was rather amused that it took him that long to remember such an important factor for having a son.

"You're not playing favourites in your classes are you"

"Of course not!" At my hard look Sirius flushed considerably. "All right... so maybe a little in my first year Gryffindor class"

Well that would explain how Gryffindor was doing so well in the points total, or why Slytherin seemed to always drop after having Sirius's class. Though everything balanced out after a Potions class.

"That Montgomery kid creeps me out as well. He doesn't speak much, but when he does it always sounds so obnoxious." Sirius muttered.

"Is he doing anything strange?" I asked eagerly.

Sirius regarded me curiously.

"Why are you so concerned with that boy"

I pursed my lips, thinking about the quiet, well-mannered boy. I didn't want to tell Sirius that I had suspicions about him, or that his father had likely been a Death Eater. Telling him all that would have just resulted in Sirius's favouritism getting worse. On the other hand he had every right to know about anything like this.

"Well Sirius... Take into account that this is entirely based off rumours and such, but Cain well... according to what I heard from Kerstan, it's going around the school that Cain's father was a Death Eater"

A few moments passed by without Sirius saying anything, just regarding me quietly, so I continued on.

"Not to mention it took a while for him to be sorted. But that doesn't really mean much since it took a while for Kerstan as well. So I just tend to keep an eye on him"

"Well he's obviously a spy"

I rolled my eyes at this simple conclusion.

"Sirius, he's an eleven year old boy. I highly doubt he's spying on anything other then possibly on the Gryffindor's Quidditch team"

"He's suspicious"

"Even more so now that I told you about his father?" My brown eyes narrowed on him. "Of course people always are exactly like their parents, eh"

He didn't reply to that, but snorted.

"So did you come here just to annoy me so I can't do any reading, while also telling me about your new adoration of certain students"

"Oh no. I wanted to see if you wanted to come to Hogsmeade with me this weekend. It's the students first trip of the year"

I tapped my fingers on the table thoughtfully, watching as Sirius shifted from foot to foot under my stare.

"Are you asking me on a date Sirius"

"No!" He muttered. "It's just that you've never been there, and while we're there you can play good teacher and keep an eye on the students." He paused in his explanation. "Though it can be a date if you want it to be"

Really sometimes the man could be rather adorable. Especially when he was so obviously nervous.

I stood up and leaned in to Sirius and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "It'll be fun I'm sure. I've always wanted to see a Wizard's village. But it is certainly not a date"

Even at my refusal of it as a date the smile never left Sirius's face. Apparently just the acceptance of the offer was enough for the man. Not surprising really, he probably had asked the question with the assumption that I would automatically turn him down since after all I always protested my liking of him. But really I did want to see a wizarding village.

Even though it was certainly not a date, that didn't mean I wanted anyone to get the wrong idea about it. Especially certain potion masters... Though the likelihood of the man caring at all was slim to none, he would just be annoyed that it was Sirius. Unluckily for me though the person I was going with happened to be Sirius, and he was just too proud of himself to keep his mouth shut for too long.

"I hope it'll be a nice weather for our date Aine"

"Where do you want to go first in Hogsmeade"

"We can share butterbeers at the Three Broomsticks"

"You can feed me chocolate from Honeydukes"

All of these comments from Sirius were followed by a kick from me, as well as a heated reminder that this was not a date. It didn't help matters either that every time he felt the urge to practically yell about our 'date', it was when Severus was nearby. The man was really rubbing this in his face.

"Sevvie!" I grinned, coming up to his desk in his classroom where he was busy scowling at the students latest attempts at making some sort of potion. My greeting somehow managed to make the scowl deepen.

"Severus, or Professor Snape. Not Sevvie"

I waved off the reprimand, still rather enjoying the fact that he let me call him Severus at all.

"Do you want to come to Hogsmeade with us today"

My offer stemmed from a particular need to make sure that the man did not think it was a date between Sirius and me.

"I wouldn't want to intrude on your date." He sneered that last out.

"It's not a date as you are well enough aware of." I muttered, perching myself on top of one of the student's desks. "You should come with us, it would be fun"

"Particularly fun to watch Black and me on the verge of killing each other is it"

I pursed my lips unhappily. Of course there was always that little problem to deal with. After all it was entirely naive of me to ever think that the two of them could ever be within a five foot radius of each other and not want to maim and destroy the other.

"Well you should still come. After all it's really the only chance you'll ever get of coming to Hogsmeade with me. After all you know well enough that I can't go there without Sirius"

"You're under the misconception that I want to go there with you." Severus kept his eyes down, picking up a pile of papers and starting to shuffle through them making many scratches on each paper. Likely some poor students' reports. He seemed in a rather foul mood at the moment, so their grades were likely going to suffer because of it.

"You know, I might have gotten that misconception after you kissed me." I muttered.

Now I was annoyed with the man. He kept switching back and forth between like and dislike for me. One of the good things about Sirius is that he at least was open about his feelings. He liked me, and I knew that. He didn't try and hide it or anything. Now Severus on the other hand was completely opposite of that. In fact I didn't know if he even liked me a little bit, or if he was just humouring my presence. I slipped off the hard desk I had been sitting on to make my way out of the classroom.

"When your connection to Black is broken you won't have to have him around to go to Hogsmeade"

I turned and regarded Severus with great interest after that comment. He wasn't looking at me or anything so I couldn't see the expression on his face. He was still focusing entirely on the papers in front of him. I smiled brightly though, because that was such a Severus thing to say. Never admitting to wanting to do something, but getting it across after all.

"Sevvie, it'll be a date then"

He looked up, eyes widening slightly, the only visual show of any shock at hearing what I had said. I waved at him, and dashed out of the room to go meet Sirius. He wouldn't be too thrilled if I was late because I had been talking to Severus of all people.

"You're late"

I sighed as I walked up to Sirius who had a red and gold scarf wrapped around his neck, a heavy black jacket keeping him warm. The weather had turned rather cold for this trip. With October almost over the weather was starting to frost a bit, and as Sirius admonished me for being late I could see his breath on the air.

"Sirius. This is not a date. So it shouldn't matter that I'm late... And by the way I'm only two minutes late"

He snorted at this but of course didn't dispute it, since he knew well enough that I was right.

Together the two of us walked down toward the Hogsmeade station. It was the first time in like two months I had been able to leave the castle really. I couldn't even really go round much of the grounds because it pushed the limit of how far I could go away from Sirius.

"So how big is this village anyway?" I had stuffed my hands into the pockets of my jacket, a scarf wound round my neck to try and keep the warmth in.

"Why exactly are you wearing a Slytherin scarf?" He ignored my question, and looked sideways at my scarf. Ahead of us Hogwarts students were walking down to the village as well. They all kept looking back at the two of us, before whispering. Really there had to be so many rumours about us amongst the students.

"I needed a scarf to wear. It's cold out." Personally I thought it was slightly obvious that it was cold. After all the man was wearing a heavy jacket, and a scarf of his own. But I didn't think it was the fact I was wearing a scarf that had his hackles raised, but more the colour of said scarf.

"But Slytherin?"

I fingered the tassels on my scarf, a slight tilt to my lips indicating my mood.

"I happen to like green and silver. You know well enough that it's my adopted house anyway"

This little statement started up a typical argument between the two of us. The joys of being in Gryffindor versus the slimy nature of all Slytherins. Of course this was an argument all in Sirius's head since he didn't really let me say anything against his precious house. Not that I had anything against his house either. I just happened to prefer green and silver... Not to mention I don't think that Gryffindor really needed any more praising. After having Harry Potter in it, it had enough people praising it to the roof.

"Where did you get the scarf from anyway"

I considered telling him that I had borrowed it from Severus. That would have pissed him off to no end. "I asked McGonagall for a scarf. She gave it to me"

The first sight of Hogsmeade, buzzing with energy, really made me smile, halting our little argument immediately. The first sight of the castle had surprised me, giving me a sense of awe. For this little village though there was no awe, but it was filled with so much vigour that it just made me happy. Everyone else as well if the student's bright grins and hurried movement was any judge.

"So what do you think of the place"

"It's spectacular." I grabbed Sirius's arm and for the next couple of hours proceeded to pull him along to places I wanted to see. I basically acted like a little girl on her first trip into the big city, pointing with excitement at things that Sirius must have thought were normal enough.

Finally we ended up in the Three Broomsticks, two butterbeers in front of us. I was busy humming to myself, and playing with a cup that turned into a little bird when I tried to drink from it, but then turned back into a cup when I put it down. Sirius had bought it for me at Zonko's since I had amused myself with it so much.

"Having fun?" The smile on Sirius's face was warm. I just nodded enthusiastically as I sipped my butterbeer. The drink really did grow on you. It was something I would certainly miss once I went back home. Maybe I could arrange with Harry to send me some on a regular basis.

"This place is really great. It's hardly even like a village, more like a tourist place. Never been to a place like this..." I tilted the bottle back, swallowing more of the amber liquid. This village was of course home to people like any village would be, but walking through out it, the feeling was more like an amusement park. It was perhaps a little biased on my part since I was visiting on a school visit. It couldn't help but feel exciting with the influx of students. Visiting on a normal day would be interesting.

"So any luck?" The question asked was quiet, but I still couldn't help the glare that I directed in the Gryffindor's direction.

"Do you really think this is a suitable place to discuss this Sirius"

He sighed dramatically, not thinking too much about my cautious nature.

"It's fine. We won't use any large words. Have you figured anything about our problem"

I tipped the bottle back, finishing my butterbeer. "Well actually... Irma..."

At my use of the librarian's first name, Sirius couldn't help the laugh that made it's way past his lips. Though at my distinctly displeased look, the laugh turned into a hacking cough.

"Irma was nice enough to lend me a book to read. I haven't had enough time to finish it because you tend to like to interrupt me." At this statement, Sirius had the decency to look a bit ashamed at least. "It looks promising though. I'll likely finish it within the week"

I had wanted to finish reading the book long ago, but work had actually started to pile up on me. It was completely my fault of course. Despite the fact that this job was completely temporary, I was giving out homework like it was my normal teaching job. Every week I had plenty of papers to grade, and classes to plan. Really I perhaps should have lightened my own load to make it easier to do the other things that I had to do. But I couldn't drop the ball. Really when you got right down to it, I wanted to make sure that when I left the students at least knew a marginal amount more then when I first arrived.

The latent psychologist in the back of my head reared itself asking me a question that I had personally been doing a wonderful job of avoiding. Was I avoiding finishing the book, because really I didn't want to break my connection to Sirius Black?

Of course that entire idea was ridiculous.

I mentally killed the latent psychologist in my head, and smiled reassuringly at Sirius who was regarding me with curiousity since I had been quiet for quite awhile.

"So any luck with you"

"Of course not." Sirius snorted softly. "I'm not going to find it. It annoys me like always, but it's up to Severus to find it"
Despite Sirius's previous declaration at the safety of discussing such matters in a bar, his voice dipped as he spoke so only I could hear what he had to say. And even I had to lean forward a bit to do so clearly.

"Oh Sirius... Does it really matter who finds it, as long as it's found?" Sometimes it felt like I was dealing with a grade schooler. He huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Poor little Sirius." I smirked, snaking my arm out and stealing his butterbeer while he was busy sulking.

"Hey!"

The mood was light, but quicker then a blink of the eye it changed. Across from me Sirius went from jokingly trying to grab back his drink, to straightening suddenly. His eyes widened with surprise, his hand held still over the table. He didn't move for quite a while and I was starting to feel rather uneasy.

"Sirius? Is something wrong"

He slowly straightened, all the while his eyes started to dart around the room, a sort of panic flowing through him.

"Do you... Do you not feel that"

His voice cracked as he finally spoke, and it felt like I had been waiting an eternity to hear his voice so I jumped slightly as he said the words. Now that he mentioned it, the room felt more enclosed, the air seemed tighter, and it appeared to have gotten much darker. A quick glance at the other people in the room though suggested that we were the only two who felt any change.

Before I could reply to his question, Sirius had jumped out of his chair and was now tearing out of the bar. He slammed open the door and raced out in to the approaching night.

Part of me wanted to stay seated in the warm bar, safe from whatever it was that had panicked Sirius so suddenly. Really when you got right down to it, I am not exactly a brave person. It was one of the reasons the hat didn't think he could sort me into Gryffindor.

In the end though my own worry over the man pushed me out of my seat. I quickly set out of the bar, ignoring the questioning looks from the remaining people. Luckily there didn't appear to be any students left.

While we had been drinking, night had started to descend upon the village. Most of the students were back at the castle, or were now heading back up. I couldn't see Sirius around, which caused me to panic slightly. My head was starting to throb painfully, the wound on my arm matching the beat in my head. It was the worst that it had hurt since we had arrived at the school. The unnatural darkness was still swarming around me, an unnatural effect since there was enough light around for me to see.

Finally I saw the top of Sirius's head going around the corner and I chased after him, finally catching up to him as he was now stalking back and forth in front of the shrieking shack. He wasn't chasing after, whatever... he had been chasing after.

"Sirius..." I approached him carefully since he looked like a stalking panther, ready to attack. He jumped slightly at the touch of my hand on his shoulder. "What happened?"

"There was that feeling... I felt something I recognized." He was frowning in concentration, trying to remember where he knew the feeling from, how he recognized it.

"Well judging by the fact that you look like you're ready to kill someone... I shall assume it wasn't a good thing you recognized." I sighed unhappily. My nice day out had taken a rather menacing turn. "Sirius... did you feel a peculiar darkness surrounding you?"

At my question Sirius finally turned to look at me, shock and worry etched on his face. At that moment he looked older and more worn then was normal. This must have been close to how he had looked upon escaping from Azkaban.

"You felt that too?" Sirius sounded almost overjoyed to hear that he hadn't been the only one experiencing it. For a moment there he must have felt an overwhelming amount of loneliness, but I had lightened the load a bit.

But I was worried by my own experience. No one else in the Three Broomsticks had felt what we had. Their faces would have shown some sign, instead the only time they had looked startled was when Sirius had ran out of the room. The implications of that were profound since it meant I had been the only one to notice what Sirius did.

"Sirius..." I held my right hand out and with my left quickly pinched my skin on my hand causing me to wince slightly.

"Ow!" Sirius frowned and started to rub his right hand. After a moment the gears started to turn in his raven haired head, his eyes jumping to my face. To satiate his curiousity he pinched his own hand, making me yelp. His eyes widened, as if my own test hadn't worked but he believed his own.

I sighed heavily and turned away from Sirius, starting to pace back and forth myself, muttering to myself that I hadn't noticed this earlier. Not that I should have been too surprised, without a large injury or being present for one, there was no way for either of us to realize anything. If Sirius stubbed his toe, all I would feel was a pain in my toe. There would be no reason to associate that pain with Sirius.

"We're connected..." His voice was soft, surprised.

"We already knew that Black." I growled, getting angry for no real reason, except my own failure. This new information drove out of our minds the earlier problem, the terror that both of us had felt, that familiar feeling.

"So you feel anything I do?" Sirius asked curious. He looked ready to test that theory out again, but my narrowed eyes staid his hand.

"To a certain degree apparently..." My voice was tired. I had dealt with having to stay within a certain area from the man quite well I thought. Now I was feeling his pain and fear. It wasn't a wonderful thought.

This could perhaps explain some of the strange dreams I had over the past two months. Of course with that thought my worry for Sirius grew, overshadowing my worry for my own safety. My dreams quite frequently over the past months had taken dark turns, I had felt enclosed, scared, at a complete loss as to what to do. Upon waking I had always assumed it was my own mind that had created the dreams. After all I was in a singularly frightening position, knowing off the Dark Lord's reappearance, having people I know being killed, and looking for the one thing that could stop his return to power. But if these dreams were Sirius's... then he was far more fragile then he was letting on, more fragile then Hermione could even have guessed.

"Sirius... I think this goes to our dreams as well. At least to strong ones"

My suggestion brought a panicked look to Sirius's eyes, suggesting that he was remembering the dreams he had been having.

"I think we should go back to the school..." His voice wavered slightly between his usual confidence and doubt. It was like always a shock to the system to witness a vulnerable Sirius. When he started to walk away, I quickly caught up to him, striding next to him trying to match his long steps. Without another word I slipped my arm into his so we ended up walking up to the castle arm in arm.

"Sirius..." I finally broke the silence.

We were standing in the entryway to the castle. It was the point where we would each go in different directions; Sirius to his room, and me down to the dungeons to mine. My voice stopped him from moving off to his rooms. He seemed trapped at the sound, caught between two different needs. One to escape quickly, the other to stay and try to fix something.

The hall was empty of students, everyone was likely in the Great Hall having dinner. I was happy at the silence in the hallway, after all this was a personal moment. One that needed to occur, and one that needed to be free from ridicule from obnoxious students.

"You're having those dreams every night." I made this guess. Personally I hadn't had the dreams every night, but that didn't mean that our connection necessarily meant that it transmitted to me each night. At his curt nod, I let out a deep sigh.

I hadn't realized how deeply things had affected the man. His death, his friend's deaths, the regret over his brother... It was all resulting with him feeling shut in, enclosed in a horrible dark place that he had no chance of escaping. Even in his dreams he was trapped. I remembered back to Hermione's words. She had said that Sirius had a wound that never healed, that perhaps I could help with that. At the time I had wanted nothing to do with it, worried over my own ability to do anything. Now though faced with the problem head on, I just wanted to help this broken man.

"Don't worry about it Aine. It's not a big deal. Everyone has nightmares..." There was a forced cheer in his voice.

I snorted.

"Not the same one every night"

"It's nothing to worry about." Sirius's voice grew hard, not wanting to continue with this conversation anymore. "There's nothing you can do about it anyway"

I pursed my lips, regarding him carefully. Well there was something I could do... but it was going to change things quite a bit.

Moving up on my toes, I slipped my hands over Sirius's cheeks. There was a faint feel of stubble over the skin which was hot under my palms. He was too surprised at my actions to react, eyes widening at my actions. I smiled slightly pulling his head closer to mine so my lips ghosted over his own, hot breath mingling together.

"The only thing I can do is make sure you're not alone when you have a nightmare"

When I pressed my lips firmly against his, I felt his answering smile, and whether it was the connection or not, I felt calm radiate through me.