Chapter 3

The next few weeks were sheer bliss. Helen relished every moment with Sirius and he cherished her very presence.

Hallowe'en was just around the corner as well as the Masquerade Ball. Preparations were being taken all of the Hogwarts students. It was to be a grand night were differences between all houses would be put aside and civilties would prevail.

As hoped and predicted the night would go well. Sirius waited at the bottom of a marble staircase along with Remus and James. Helen descended the stairs first.

She was breathtaking and heart stopping, despite his racing heart. Helen was outfitted in an elegant lavender dress that had a beautiful powder blue trim. The dress was not small either, it was big and gorgeous. The colors complimented her light blonde hair. The tight corset wrapped around her curving frame making her have a 20 inch waist. (A/N: this is tiny, find a tape measure!)

The two made their way to the Great Hall, leaving the other four Sirius and Helen danced all night. Helen noticed Sirius give Remus a wink as he led Leigh out to the courtyard.

"Where are they going?" Helen asked Sirius.

"He's proposing to her." Sirius smiled casually.

Helen smiled back and thought amusedly. They continued to dance until the Masquerade Ball ended at midnight. Helen went upstairs with Leigh and changed into their nightclothes. Leigh assisted Helen in getting out of her dress and Helen helped her. Helen went back downstairs, were the boys were. Sirius had changed as well.

Sirius, Helen, James, and Lily stayed up talking and cutting up in the common room with Frank Longbottom and his girlfriend Alice. The group didn't retire and instead fell asleep in the common room.

In the early hours of the morning Sirius heard something in the boys' room so he went to see what was up.

November crept slowly through on whistling winds and wilting flowers. They had Transfiguration, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and Divination for classes and the rest of the day off.

In Transfiguration they would be turning pufskeins into pillows. Professor McGonagall was constantly lecturing the Marauders for their misbehavior. It was obvious she didn't play favorites, (although she had her soft spots) even for students of her own House.

"Potter! Black!" McGonagall barked. "Will you two Behave? For just once, can you act your age? This is your last year at Hogwarts. Do either of you have the slightest clue as to what you want to make of your self when you have to face the real world?" she continued in more hushed tones, "The world is not as it was on the first day you arrived at the school. It is darker, and it cannot be ignored."

Lily and Helen who had been watching the circumstances and lecture develop gave the boys the death glare for getting into trouble. No one had heard the professor when she quieted her voice.

The group of six walked up to the Gryffindor common room to switch out their books for Herbology. Helen asked,

"What was it McGonagall was telling you and James?"

Lily agreed, turning to James, "Yea, what did she say James?"

The boys looked at each other nervous and frantic; searching hoping for the other to answer. Luckily it went unnoticed by the girls who were putting their books on the table.

"Well…" Sirius began.

"Uhhm…" James attempted until Remus came to the rescue.

"Didn't she say something about pulling your acts together or something?"

Sirius and James breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

"Yea, something like that." James said.

"Wasn't listening." Sirius smiled at Helen.

The girls seemed satisfied enough by the answer Remus had dished out. Sirius and James thanked Remus by widening their eyes and mouthing the words.

Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures went by fairly quickly and without incident.

When they got to Divination, however, it was a fairly different story. None of them wanted to be there as it was and their frightfully strange professor did not make it any better.

She wasn't a phony as had been determined, which made her scarier. She was a short, skinny woman with fried black hair and electric blue eyes. She had two streaks of hair in the front, they were green and pink. Very noticeable. Unfortunately, she believed so greatly in her subject, she lived by it as though it were a Holy Book.

They were reviewing what they had learned in the past few years. Today was dream interpretation.

James, Sirius, and Remus were sitting at a table, and Lily, Helen, and Leigh were sitting at their own. James figured that they would be making up dreams just as they had done many years ago. Lily began rambling on and on about her recent dreams, something about being chased by a foggy orb and then of a more frightening dream. Helen looked uncomfortable and Leigh looked sympathetic. Remus and Sirius were feeling the same way respectively.

Remus was pleading with his eyes for Sirius not to say anything to James.

"I won't." Sirius mouthed as James was creating a dream about him chasing a butterfly into the lake and being sucked down by the giant squid and ending up in the girls' lavatory with Moaning Myrtle.

Helen was recalling her terrifying past.

The bell rang dispersing the students to the freedom of the bitterly cold afternoon. Christmas would soon be approaching and there would be many students in Hogsmeade buying gifts for friends.

Helen was going to write a letter to her dad, asking him if Sirius could stay with them for the holidays.

Dear Dad,

Hi! I hope that you've been doing well and haven't been drinking much, and the holidays are coming up! Yay! I look forward to them and seeing you. As you might have guessed I'm coming home and I had a question.

I wanted to know if my friend, alright, boyfriend, could spend the holidays with us. His name is Sirius Black. He has no family to spend the holidays with and well I think it would be nice if he spent it with us.

I look forward to your reply by owl.

Love you,

Helen

"There, I think that'll do it." she said optimistically.

She and Sirius were in the school owlry and had just sent off the gentle barn owl that had grown partial to her over the years.

"Do you realize that this is our last year here?" Helen said

"Yea, wow. That's really depressing." Sirius responded.

"I don't want to think about that." Helen declared as she wrinkled her nose, a trait that melted Sirius' heart every time.

She smiled at him curiously, "What are you looking at?" she asked sweetly.

"Just looking at you, and how beautiful you are…" he paused, then whispered in her ear as he held her, "I'm so lucky to have you."

All she could do in times like this was deny him. She wasn't used to this treatment.

"No, I'm lucky to have you. There was just something about you that made me trust… I don't know… I never thought I could love…" she stopped.

"Baby…" Sirius began with misting eyes. "What happened to you?"

Helen realized her mistake and tried to run but Sirius held her back by the wrists. She gasped for breath and in the back of her mind, for a moment, was scared. Being trapped or cornered was one of her biggest fears now. An image, and many others, of the pink shirt incident flashed across her mind.

Sirius held her neck between his two hands as one tear escaped her eye.

A/N: well ppl plz let me know what you think about this story. PUUHHHLEEEZ tell ppl about it. That's if it doesn't suck. Lol either way I expect a REVIEW! I need for something to go wrong. I know that this is fanfic and whatever you want to happen can… but I like stickin to the basis of J.K.R.'s work. Ya know. So if anyone had an idea of what can make them split up (and Remus and Leigh in MMTR) let me know.