Chapter 5

Lily was in the corner of the bedroom, pretending to be asleep. As she listened to Sirius' gentle words spoken to the silent girl, she wept, hoping for his sake that Helen would get better quickly. She had no idea that Sirius was so loving and serious about this girl. (A/N: no pun intended!) This was a side of him that Lily didn't know, that the cut-up, prankster, snog-anything-in-a-skirt, was capable of the passion and intense emotion that he had displayed within the 24-36 hours that Helen was in "trouble". Lily wondered how James felt. She slipped into a peaceful slumber. Soon after Sirius followed suit.

Sirius awoke after Lily to the dusty sunlight sneaking in through the smoke-glassed windows and cast thick gray and gold shadows over the furniture and floors. He yawned and saw a light puff of gray emit from his mouth. He realized that that was his breath and felt the cold in the room.

"Lily," he began to ask, "Can you make a smokeless fire?"

"Yes." She smiled and performed the charm. "Cremo Abiciofumus."

Helen woke up two hours later to the now warmer room. The vibrant amber flames licked the air hungrily for oxygen to feed itself. Helen was acting completely normal and talking fluently to both Sirius and Lily. He was glad that she was herself again. Sirius summoned a plate of food that held bacon and biscuits. She hadn't eaten since breakfast of the day Sirius and she sent a letter to her father. She gratefully accepted the plate and ate heartily. Helen withheld a question, but finally could not contain it any longer.

"Where are we?"

Sirius looked nervously at Lily as though he expected an answer to be written across her forehead, or perhaps scribbled across the dirty wall panels behind her.

Lily widened her eyes and shrugged her shoulders helplessly, conveying that she didn't know what to do. Sirius replied to her body language with his own by lifting his right eyebrow and shifting his eyes rapidly and warily around the room. Lily nodded. Sirius turned to Helen.

"You're in the Shrieking Shack."

Helen sat processing the information in her brain, looking quite confused and pensive all the while. After a moment she came to, realizing where she was.

"But why? Where…? Why here? It's…" Helen started frantically and at such a rapid place she couldn't quite be understood.

She tried desperately to escape the bedding that was intertwined around her limbs, confining her to the horrid place she believed she was in. This only distressed Helen further. Sirius was once more at her side. He was attempting to release her from the sheets that were binding her to the bed. She tried at springing herself from the bed and was only caught in Sirius' arms. He was attempting and failing horribly at trying to calm her down. He was stroking her hair and saying all he could to settle her.

Moment later after Helen had settled down and resumed normal lung operations. Sirius had explained…

"Wow," Helen said softly, "That's amazing…the…the loyalty and dedication of you friendship to Remus. All of you. It's just mind-boggling and…you are risking your freedom to be with a friend going through a tough time."

"So…you…you're okay with….with Remus being what… well a werewolf?" Sirius asked uncertainly, glancing anxiously at Lily.

"Yes. Why wouldn't I be?" she smiled, "He's a great guy. He was bitten by a werewolf. He can't help that and he couldn't have prevented it. He's smart and all the girls are like totally in love with him and so jealous of Leigh."

Helen still had the smile on her face. Sirius was so thankful that she understood and didn't blame Remus and still thought of him as just another friend in the bunch.

Helen was well enough by that afternoon to go back to the castle. The cold winds whipped around Hogwarts like there was no tomorrow. The winter was one of the worst that Dumbledore had seen in ages. Helen, Lily, and Sirius made it back to the common room after 2pm. Helen slept fairly well that night, as did the other two.

Snow piled high outside making Herbology in the greenhouse impossible; therefore it was held in a classroom. It was the last day of classes before the Christmas holidays so homework after their first two classes, which were Herbology and Divination, was already overload. Their next two classes were Transfiguration and Double Potions.

"So let's see for homework over the holidays we have: Herbology, four feet on a plant that has made the most impact or has been most studied, or we want to learn more about, or something not covered in class (wow); Divination, track the stars and predict what each of the movements foretell, write one foot on it, keep a dream diary, and we'll figure out the meanings of them in class when we get back, okay then; Transfiguration, not much really, more writing assignments, we have to find something that we would like to learn that we have not covered in class and write one and a half feet at least on why it would benefit our learning development; and finally Potions…."Helen sighed. "Three feet on different important potions, brewed in class, their uses and importance's."

"That is a lot, but I think that we can do it." James said optimistically.

"As long as we plan out our schedules and times for doing homework" Lily said.

"We'll be fine." Remus added.

"We're all going to die." Leigh said dramatically, laughing with the others at her ridiculous statement, hoping they would indeed survive the brutality of the homework.

Later that evening

"Well we leave early tomorrow morning for Helen's house," Sirius said pointedly, "So, we'll have to see each other…"

"When you get back" James finished.

Sirius had never been away from Hogwarts during the time school was in session unless he was with James, but the normally remained at the castle, nor had Sirius ever met a girlfriend's parents. He tried to remind himself that he was only meeting Helen's dad. This was not much of a comfort.

Meanwhile in the girls' dormitory

Helen was so worried. She had never taken a boy to meet her family, even though it was just her dad. "Oh no! What if he's drunk? What will Sirius think? Oh well, it's my dad and I love him. And he won't be drunk, he wouldn't do that." She thought rapidly. "Oh, I miss you so much mum. I'll bring Sirius to meet you. You'll love him mum. He's such a sweetheart. He cares a lot about me, and I love him. Help dad to accept Sirius, and to know that I'm still his little girl."

The next day, and boarding the Hogwarts Express

The couple drug their trunks to the train along with a few others who were bracing themselves against the violent winds and heavy snow. When they got in their own compartment the trolley came around to offer them butterbeer, the two graciously drank it, allowing the smooth liquid to warm them inside and out.

They arrived at Platform 9 ¾, and stepped through the barrier to await Mr. Brundlehurst. When he didn't come Helen tried to use a pay phone to call but the lines were down. Helen decided that the taxi was the best bet, no taxis were on the road, the weather was too horrible and everyone was told to stay indoors.

Sirius had an idea.

"Helen, darling, we're old enough to apparate."

She looked at him surprised and ashamed that she hadn't thought of that first.

A/N: Well….no one reviewed me last time…but that's ok…. Alright I lied. No its not. Please I beg of you….. review plz… well now on to the story… the next chapter, maybe two will be the vacation and such. Do you like this story so far? I need to know. :-)) talk to you all very soon. xoxo R/R!