It was nearing the end of January, and Sadie found herself, once again, locked in a heated embrace with Gideon inside of an especially small broom cupboard. She wasn't exactly sure when or how it had happened, but both of their shirts lay discarded somewhere in the dark space, and Gideon's mouth was pressing hot kisses along her neck and shoulders. Sadie bit her lip and closed her eyes, heart hammering as she both enjoyed this level of attention and swallowed some anxiety that he might push her to go further. It had taken her a couple of weeks to become comfortable with even this, but that didn't mean that Gideon didn't make it perfectly clear that he wanted more.

As though on cue, he suddenly grabbed her hips and yanked them closer to press against his own. One hand snaked around to her lower back to keep her in place while his other crept up and brushed against the fabric of her bra. Sadie let out a strangled gasp and squeezed her eyes more tightly shut. Gideon apparently felt her tense up, and so he, very reluctantly, withdrew his hand and instead used it to grip her hip tightly. Sadie swallowed hard, trying to stop tears from welling up in her eyes. It had been like this for weeks now, and she could practically feel the frustration coming off of him in waves, even if he never expressed it verbally.

It didn't take long for her worries to move to the back of her mind as Gideon slowly kissed his way back up to her lips. It was obviously taking him a bit of effort, but he slowed down and kissed her more tenderly. His hands moved from her hips, one coming up to cup her cheek and the other tangling in her hair.

"I love you," he murmured between kisses. Sadie felt her heart leap the same way that it did every time he whispered those words to her. She hummed happily against his lips and wrapped her arms around his neck, relishing the feeling of his bare chest pressed against hers.

The door was thrown open, and they broke apart quickly, blinking against the sudden light that had filled the cupboard.

"What did I say, Lily?" Remus smirked, though he politely avoided looking directly at Sadie. "I told you we'd probably catch them somewhere during patrols."

Lily was frowning at them exasperatedly, though there was the slightest hint of amusement in her green eyes. "Lose track of time again? People have been looking for both of you all evening."

Gideon glanced at his watch and cleared his throat with a grin. "It would appear that way..."

Sadie gave Lily a sheepish look as she pulled her shirt down from where it was hanging off of a mop handle and yanked it over her head. "Are you going to take points?"

"Well, we certainly should," Lily told her, rolling her eyes. "But we'll give you a pass as long as you head straight back to the common room. Honestly, you're in the same house! Why on earth do you feel the need to sneak off to broom cupboards all the time?"

"It's more private," Gideon shrugged. "At least, you know, in theory..."

Remus snickered, though he tried to cover it up with a cough. Sadie narrowed her eyes and jabbed at his side as she exited the cupboard, causing him to yelp and glare at her playfully. She stuck her tongue out at him before turning on her heel and marching back toward the common room with as much dignity as she could muster. Gideon chuckled as he jogged to catch up with her. His arms wrapped around her waist from behind, slowing her down, and they walked slowly and somewhat awkwardly toward the staircase leading up to the Fat Lady's portrait. Sadie fought valiantly against the smile that was tugging at her lips, but to no avail.

"You know," Gideon said casually. "Maybe it's time we moved on from broom cupboards and empty classrooms to someplace where we're less likely to get caught by your prefect friends..."

Sadie snorted. "What, like the common room after everyone else has gone to bed? Because that turned out so well the last time."

"Well, no," he answered airily. "But you could always...I don't know...come up to my dorm." Sadie's stomach lurched uncomfortably. "Obviously the dorm itself isn't very private, but once you close and silence the curtains on my bed..."

"Oh..." Sadie's voice came out a bit higher than normal. "Right..."

"You could even sleep there." The words were tumbling out of Gideon's mouth in a rush as though they'd been waiting to be spoken aloud for quite some time. "I mean, we wouldn't even have to do much snogging if it made you uncomfortable...We could just...be together. And sleep..." He took a deep breath as they stopped in front of the portrait hole. Sadie chanced a glance at him and noticed that he was fidgeting slightly, and his ears were red. "I just...I'd love to have you there with me at night. I know we haven't spent much time together lately because I've been so busy." He looked at the ground and rubbed the back of his neck. "I just thought maybe we could make up for that at night. Unless you're uncomfortable with that or you think Evans would notice and have a problem with it..."

Sadie chewed lightly on her lower lip, thinking hard. It wasn't Lily that she was worried about; the redhead would just assume that she was sleeping in her brother's dorm again, as she had been doing frequently of late. But she knew that the boys would notice, and, apart from wanting to avoid what was sure to be an overreaction from James, she was inexplicably averse to the idea of Sirius finding out that she had abandoned her nights with him in favor of spending them with her boyfriend.

"That's ridiculous," she scoffed to herself. "It would make way more sense for me to sleep with Gideon than with Sirius. And it's none of Sirius's business anyway."

Of course, there was also a large part of her that was deeply anxious about spending the night with Gideon. As much as he claimed that they wouldn't have to do anything but sleep, Sadie wasn't sure that she believed him or trusted that he wouldn't try to push her into things that she wasn't ready for...

But as soon as that thought entered her mind, a wave of guilt washed over her. Gideon hadn't forced her into anything yet, and, even though he had been pushing her boundaries lately, he always stopped as soon as she made her discomfort clear. Besides, this was the first time since the start of term that he had expressed an interest in spending time with her outside of their occasional snog sessions. How could she possibly turn that down?

But then there were the nightmares to consider. She was still having them regularly, and she didn't particularly want Gideon to know about them. Sleeping with Sirius meant that he could wake her up and soothe her back to sleep at the slightest whimper, and on the nights that she slept in her own dorm, it was easy to silence the curtains around her bed to avoid disturbing anyone. But she didn't want to add her troubles to Gideon's list of things to worry about right now.

One look at the anxiety written on Gideon's face was enough to persuade Sadie to try to make something work. She gave him a shy smile.

"Oh, I could probably get away with it every once in a while. Just not too often, and probably not all night. I'll have to make sure I'm back before anyone notices."

Gideon's face broke into a relieved grin. "Good enough for me." He gave the password, and they slipped through the portrait hole into the common room. He kissed her swiftly before making his way over to his usual table by the window and pulling out his books. Sadie's mood deflated a bit, but she was growing used to him deserting her as soon as they'd finished snogging.

"This isn't how it's supposed to be," said a quiet, nagging voice at the back of her mind. But Sadie quickly scolded herself.

"It'll get better," she thought weakly. "He's just going through a tough time right now. We'll work through it together, and then things will go back to at least somewhat how they were before..."

"But is that even really what you want?" The voice asked slyly.

"Of course it is!" Sadie insisted irritably. "I love him and want to be with him!" But even as she thought it, Sirius's grinning face flashed, unbidden, in her mind's eye. She shook her head angrily and turned to make her way up to her dormitory, but she immediately found herself face-to-face with Sirius himself.

"Hey, Sadie Mae," he greeted, eyebrows raising as he took in the sour look on her face. "Doing alright?"

"I'm fine," she snapped, but she immediately regretted her tone as he blinked in surprise. "Sorry..." she mumbled. "Just stressed about homework..."

"Right..." Sirius sounded skeptical but didn't push the issue. "Well, listen, James and I were just chatting with Astrid and Shawna, and..." He glanced over at Gideon and lowered his voice slightly. "Well, we're all just wondering if we're going to start Quidditch practices any time soon... We know things are hard for the Prewetts right now, and we don't really want to push it, but...we're supposed to play Hufflepuff in a little over a month, and we haven't practiced once since the holidays..."

Sadie rubbed her face wearily. "Yeah, you're right. I'll bring it up with him tomorrow. It's useless to try and talk to him once he's in the zone." She tried at hard as she could to keep the note of bitterness out of her voice, but she knew she was unsuccessful. Sirius gazed at her in concern.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

She sighed. As much as she wanted to talk to Sirius about all of this...well...she really didn't. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Sirius still looked unconvinced, but he had long given up on trying to get her to talk when she didn't want to. "Alright. Well...should I wait up for you tonight?"

Sadie hesitated and glanced at Gideon. He looked like he would be up for a while, and it wasn't like they hadn't already spent a good while together that evening. Maybe they could try for tomorrow. "I think I might head up now, actually. I'm dead tired."

Sirius smiled and gave her hand a squeeze. They quickly glanced around to make sure no one was looking (Gideon in particular) before quickly disappearing up the stairs to the boys' dormitory, where they ended up chatting and laughing for a bit longer than they perhaps had intended before finally curling up and falling fast asleep.

A/N: As always, thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!

WindSongEnchantment: Thanks so much! It's definitely been a difficult balance for me to strike, so I'm so glad you think I'm doing it successfully!