CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-THREE
Six days later, everything was ready. The flat in London had been fully furnished. Jane and Sirius had gotten all of their things packed and moved, and of course, Sirius had added his own finishing touches to the flat so that it was now at least half a size bigger on the inside than it was on the outside, not that it had needed to be in the first place.
It was a nice place to live. There was a sweet Muggle girl in her early twenties named Donna that lived beside them; she had welcomed Jane and Sirius happily once she'd finally met them. Also, the placement of the flat wasn't too far away from the Leaky Caldron and Diagon Alley, which Jane had been very happy about.
"Well, I know how you loathe Apparation," Sirius had told her, "and we don't have a fireplace. And yeah, there's the Knight Bus, but I figured it'd be nice to be close by anyway."
As for her father, Jane had decided that it was best to take things slow after their last meeting. She opted for exchanging letters with him. She still didn't know quite what to say to her father just yet, so she settled for keeping him updated on how moving into the new flat was going. In turn, he wrote back about work. She could tell that Asha was happy to have something to do again.
Currently, Jane was unpacking the books, belonging to both her and Sirius, and placing them on the new bookshelf in the sitting room. Just a few more boxes of things, and they'd be finished with unpacking. Jane wanted the flat to be perfect because they'd invited their friends over for dinner that evening.
"Did you want these organised a certain way?" Jane called to Sirius even though she was already placing the books on the shelf at random, not really caring one way or the other.
Jane heard Sirius chuckle as he appeared behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. Her back was flush against him, and she could feel the movement of his chest as he heaved a dramatic sigh, causing her to laugh.
"Oh, you're doing it all wrong, Janie," he teased. "Your boring books go on the bottom shelf, far away from my books."
As he said this, Sirius took two of Jane's books that she had just placed on the top shelf and moved them to the bottom one, a smirk plastered on his handsome face. Jane rolled her eyes and turned, pushing him away from her playfully.
"Oh, shut up," Jane laughed, putting her books back to where they had been before Sirius had moved them, and Sirius watched her for a few seconds.
"What are you doing things the hard way for anyway? Is this why it took you forever to pack your things up in the first place?" Sirius finally asked.
He grabbed his wand and flicked it slightly at the boxes of books. Jane jumped out of the way as the remaining books flew to the shelf of their own accord. She frowned at the now empty boxes, having been enjoying the mindless task. Sirius noticed the frown and rolled his eyes at her.
"Oh, fine," he said before flicking his wand again.
All the books promptly fell off the bookshelf at Jane's feet, and she jumped back even more so some of the thicker ones wouldn't land on her bare feet. She scowled even harder at the pile of books now in the floor before looking at Sirius, who had a cheeky grin plastered on his face. Jane picked up one of the smaller books and threw it at him. He dodged it expertly, laughing as he opened up the last box at his feet. Upon seeing more of Jane's clothes, he groaned.
"Why do you have so many clothes?" he whined, picking up the box; Jane scoffed.
"You're one to talk, Mr. Owns-Five-Different-Leather-Jackets," she shot back, smiling when she heard him mutter under his breath,
"I don't own five."
"I'm going to have to expand the closet again," he said in a faux exasperated tone.
"Why? Still not big enough to fit your ego in?" Jane quipped, still smiling as she began placing the books back on the bookshelf.
"What?" Sirius said, snapping his head back in her direction.
"Nothing," Jane said, not bothering to conceal her smile; Sirius narrowed his eyes at her.
"I will permanently turn all your clothes orange," he threatened.
Jane turned to look at him, hand still clutched around a book that she hadn't sat back on the shelf yet.
"You wouldn't dare," she challenged.
Sirius shrugged.
"I'll start with this lot then," he said, pulling a pair of trousers from the box and retreating into the bedroom.
Jane dropped the book she was holding and ran after him.
"I swear to Merlin, Sirius, if you touch my clothes, I'll dismantle Bonnie and—"
As she entered the room, Jane's ranting came to an abrupt stop when Sirius grabbed her around her waist and spun her around, her box of clothes long forgotten. When he stopped, he pinned her against the wall.
"Such awful things to say," he teased as Jane laughed. "What has Bonnie ever done to you?"
"Well, you do spend an awful lot of time with her," Jane replied, smirking up at him.
Sirius let out a bark of laughter.
"Do I now? And are you jealous of my motorbike?"
"Very," Jane drawled out in a sarcastic tone.
Sirius then leaned in very close to Jane.
"Well, let me make it up to you then," he whispered, lips grazing her ear, the playful tone now gone from his voice and replaced by something different that made Jane's eyes flutter shut.
The air around them suddenly became heavy, and Sirius' lips had no trouble finding their way to Jane's as his hands slowly travelled down her sides. Jane let out a contented hum as she snaked her arms around his neck and pushed herself closer to him.
Somewhere in the back of Jane's mind, she knew that tonight was the night. It was their first official night in their flat. They would be all alone and sharing a bed with no fear of getting caught by anyone. Jane had been waiting for this day for a while now. She'd even bought an Anti-Fertility Potion a little over a month ago in Hogsmeade, which, now that she thought of it, she should probably take today at some point.
Jane's thoughts were interrupted as Sirius slid his hands under the hem of her shirt and grazed her bare sides, causing goose pimples to form on the skin there. She shivered and pulled away from his touch slightly.
"Your hands are cold," she explained with a smile when Sirius gave her a questioning look.
Sirius shrugged as he retracted his hands.
"Fine, I won't touch you," he teased.
Jane scoffed, pulling him back to her roughly. Sirius pressed his lips shut and put his hands behind his back.
"You're trying my patience," she murmured against his unmoving lips.
Jane felt Sirius' lips pull into what she knew had to be a very smug grin before he finally kissed her back with full force. His hands flew back to where they'd previously been; they were still a bit cold, but they quickly warmed up as they roamed her flesh.
Just as Jane was about to pull her shirt off, there was a knocking at their door.
"For fuck's sake!" Sirius groaned loudly in annoyance, and Jane let out a chuckle.
Jane gave him another soft kiss before pulling away. As she walked out of the bedroom and towards the door, she casually waved her wand at the pile of books still in the floor, and they flew back to the shelf.
Jane looked through the peephole when she reached the door and smiled. She pulled open the door and immediately wrapped Remus in a hug before dragging him inside.
"Moony, you're about two and a half hours early for dinner. Try again later," Sirius said, clearly still agitated at the interruption.
Jane shot Sirius a look and turned back to Remus.
"Don't mind him," she said. "But why are you so early?"
"I know; I'm sorry," Remus said. "I have a problem."
Jane arched a brow at Remus. He seemed nervous. She noticed that he was wringing his hands together as she lead him to the couch, though he didn't sit down.
"What is it?" Sirius asked, now worried about what was bothering his friend.
Remus let out a nervous laugh as he raked a hand through his hair.
"I, um—I sort of invited—I didn't really invite her— Well, I did technically, but it's a lot more complicated than that really. I mean, I hadn't been planning on it—"
"Bloody hell, mate, spit it out already," Sirius said, interrupting Remus' babbling.
Remus sighed before looking at Jane.
"I invited Lennox Sterling to the dinner tonight."
It sounded more like a question than a statement, as though Remus wasn't so sure it had actually even happened. Jane repressed the urge to giggle at the confused look on his pale face.
"Sterling?" Sirius asked. "Where'd you see her at?"
"Diagon Alley, not twenty minutes ago," Remus said as he finally plopped himself on the sofa. "Ran into her outside of Flourish and Blotts."
"And?" Jane pressed.
"And what?" Remus half-snapped. "I invited her here. What more do you want?"
"Oh, please," Jane said, rolling her eyes. "You didn't just invite her here out of the blue."
"Janie's right. That doesn't sound very Remus-like," Sirius added.
"Well, of course I didn't," he said before sighing again as though this were a bad thing.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, eyes closed in thought, before continuing.
"She just kept talking and looking at me with those eyes she has—"
"Sterling has eyes? Why, I've never noticed before," Sirius jested.
Jane flicked her wand at the chair Sirius was in, and it lurched, throwing him to the floor with a loud thud.
"Anyway," Remus continued, unfazed by this, "one thing lead to another, and suddenly, she was inviting me to dinner."
"I should've known you weren't the one to take the initiative," Sirius said, picking himself up off the ground and scowling at Jane, flicking his own wand at her in retaliation.
Jane let out a small yelp when she felt a sudden pinching sensation on her arm. Once again, Remus ignored them.
"Of course, I told her that I already had plans for dinner, and I thought that'd be the end of it, but she just looked so…disappointed?"
Remus phrased the last word as a question as though he weren't sure it was the word he was looking for.
"And then, before I even knew what I was doing, I invited her here!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up as though exasperated with what he'd done.
Jane furrowed her brow, still rubbing her arm, and looked at Sirius.
"Is it just me, or are you also failing to see the problem here?" she asked Sirius, who only shrugged in response.
"It's no joke," Remus snapped. "What if she thinks it's a date?"
"Well, isn't it? Sort of?" Jane asked.
"No," Remus denied.
"Let's see," Sirius butted in. "You fancy Sterling. She's had a crush on you since Merlin knows when. You invited her to a dinner you're having with close friends."
Sirius paused, pretending to think hard about the situation.
"Nope, it's a date. Granted, not a very good date but a date nonetheless," he finally told Remus.
"I don't fancy her," was all Remus said.
"Like anyone believes that," Jane said, rolling her eyes.
Remus let out an irritated sigh.
"Fine. Say I do fancy her—"
"You do," Sirius and Jane said simultaneously, and Remus scowled at them before continuing.
"—it's not like anything can happen between us."
"Oh, not this again," Sirius complained.
"Well, it's not completely unfounded, Padfoot. In case you haven't noticed, I turn into a monster once a month."
Jane reached out and slapped Remus on the back of his head.
"What did I say about calling yourself that?" she scolded.
"Well, it's true," Remus replied, and Jane smacked his head for a second time.
"Oy! Stop that!" he complained, rubbing the back of his head.
"This is what's gonna happen," Jane announced over him loudly. "Remus, since you're already here, you are coming to the grocer's with me to pick up what we need for dinner. And while we're there, you're going to dump all your worries outside of that brilliant head of yours and just let yourself be happy for once."
"And I'm supposed to…?" Sirius asked.
"Did you want to come to the grocer's?" Jane asked.
Sirius thought about it for a minute before shaking his head.
"Have fun, Moony. I've got a closet to expand. Again."
And with that, Jane grabbed up her purse, slid on her shoes, and dragged Remus out of the flat muttering under her breath in annoyance,
"Monster? Give me a break. You once lectured me for thirty minutes on the dangers of leaving my Exploding Snap cards out of their fire resistant case, even though the chances of them exploding when they aren't being used is about one in a thousand. Forgive me if I'm not quaking with fear at the sight of you."
Sirius smirked in amusement as Jane slammed the door behind her. About five seconds later, it swung back open, and she strolled back in to swipe a piece of paper off the kitchen counter.
"Forgot the grocery list," she murmured before disappearing once more.
The grocer's was only about three blocks from the flat, and Jane's scolding never let up the entire time she was looking for the items on her list. By the time they were walking back to the flat with their grocery bags in hand, Remus just agreed with her to get her to stop talking about it. She was starting to give him a headache.
When Jane walked back into the flat, Sirius was lounging on the sofa, skimming through one of Jane's books that he had called boring earlier. Jane and Remus sat their bags on the kitchen counter, and Jane set to work straight away, pulling out various items.
"I got the capon chickens instead of the regular roasting chickens because they're a bit bigger. I still bought two, just in case. I know how easily you lot can pack away food," she said.
Sirius threw the book onto the coffee table and yawned.
"I don't know what you're talking about, but Marlene's owl dropped off a letter from her and Mary while you were out," he said, holding up a folded piece of parchment for Jane to take; she frowned at him.
"Can't you just tell me what it says?" she asked, turning the oven on to preheat it.
"Something about not being able to come because they're taking Mary's brother to St. Mungo's or something," he said in a disinterested voice.
"Oh my god, what happened?" Jane asked, suddenly running to snatch the letter from Sirius' hand.
Jane frowned as she looked over the letter. She threw it back at Sirius.
"It says Mary's cat ate a Bundimun. They're taking him to get looked at, you tosser."
"It said Henry!" Sirius argued.
"The cat's named Henry too."
"Well, how was I supposed to know?"
"Why would Mary's sixteen-year-old brother eat a Bundimun?" Jane muttered, walking back to the open kitchen space.
"Who names their cat after their brother?" Sirius muttered back, mimicking her tone.
Remus ignored them, grabbing up the book that Sirius had thrown on the coffee table and flipping through the pages.
"Can I borrow this?" he asked.
Jane nodded.
"Sure, go ahead."
Sirius peered over the back of the sofa, towards the kitchen, where Jane was moving swiftly about, charming knives to chop up the potatoes after she'd scrubbed them and looking for spices and herbs to use. He had seen Jane cook before. There had been plenty of times at the Potters' that Jane had helped Mrs. Potter prepare dinner while he and James hung around the kitchen, stealing bites of food when James' mum wasn't looking.
Sirius smiled as he watched Jane. There was just something about her making dinner in the kitchen of their flat that they owned together that made something inside his chest swell happily. Remus, who had been walking about the living room, finally fell onto the sofa lazily beside Sirius and opened the book that Jane was lending him.
"It's a nice place you've got," he said, not looking up from the book.
Sirius, whose eyes were still on Jane, nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, it is."
"What's this black thing hanging on your wall?"
Jane looked up from the table she was setting and laughed when she saw Alice pointing at the phone.
"That's a telephone," James said almost immediately. "We learned about those in Muggle Studies."
"Yeah, Janie made me get one," Sirius said. "Useful thing though. I can talk to someone that's cross the country if I know the right numbers to press."
"Well, that's handy," Frank said.
Lily, who was helping Jane set the table, giggled.
"If you think this is amusing, you should have been here when I was installing it. Then later, I went back to the Potters' to grab some more of my things, and when I got back here, Sirius was chatting up some random bloke from Kent. The guy finally hung up on him; thought it was a prank phone call," Jane told her.
Peter walked over to them.
"I'm starving," he whined. "Can't you move any faster?"
"Be patient," Jane scolded. "We're not eating until everyone gets here anyway."
Peter looked around the room, counting off the people in his head.
"I thought you said Mary and Marlene weren't coming," he said, furrowing his brow.
"They aren't, but Remus invited Lennox Sterling," Jane said with a smile.
Peter's eyes went wide in surprise.
"Surely, you aren't talking about Moony," he said.
Jane only nodded.
"Remus Lupin? That Remus?"
"Yes, that Remus," Jane continued in an amused voice.
"You're talking about him?" Peter continued, pointing over at Remus who still had his nose in the book Jane had lent him.
"I don't know how to make it any plainer, but yes. That is who I'm talking about."
"Well, I don't believe you," Peter said. "Remus has had years to ask Sterling out on a date, and he hasn't. You expect me to believe he's suddenly had a change of heart?"
"It's not a date!" Remus said from the sofa, having been listening in on his friends' conversation.
"It's a date," Jane and Lily said at the same time.
Remus only rolled his eyes and went back to reading, shaking his head a little.
"Moony's never even kissed a girl. Maybe it's best if we let him think it's not a date after all," Sirius said.
"Define kiss," Remus said, turning a page in his book.
"Define—?" Sirius said, furrowing his brow. "Your lips. In a kiss, they tend to be touching someone else's."
Remus let a small smirk creep onto his face.
"Then, yes, I have."
James' brow shot up.
"And do we know this mystery girl?" he asked.
Remus nodded, still smirking a bit at his book.
"Quite well."
Jane had to conceal the laughter that was bubbling forth with a cough as Remus said this, and before James or Sirius could inquire further, there was a knock at the door. Remus stood, stretching.
"I'll get that," he said, flashing a quick grin at Jane, who was still trying to choke down her laughter as Lily gave her a questioning look.
"I'm sorry I'm late," Lennox said almost automatically as she walked through the door. "I wasn't sure if I should bring anything or not. Then, I wasn't sure what you'd need, so I just brought this."
Jane smiled at the potted plant Lennox held in her hands. It had a black stem and white flowers, and Jane recognised it from one of her Herbology books, but she couldn't remember the name of it.
"Thank you, it's lovely," Jane said, taking it and sitting it on the coffee table.
"We were supposed to bring gifts?" Jane heard Peter ask Lily.
"You didn't have to bring anything," Jane said to Lennox, mostly to reassure Peter.
"Well, Mum says it's good luck to have Moly in the house anyway. She's a bit superstitious. Though, it's used in a lot of restorative and protective potions, so I figured it might come in handy one day," Lennox said.
"All right then, time for dinner," Sirius said, jumping up from the couch. "I hope none of you got your hopes up. I mean, Janie cooked it after all," he teased, and Jane rolled her eyes as she magicked the food she'd prepared onto the dining table.
"Anyone want to place a wager on how long Sirius can survive when Jane starts to starve him?" Alice joked as they all started to sit down.
"Oh please," Lily said, "all he has to do is pop over to the Potters'. James' mum wouldn't let him go hungry."
"I could cook my own food. How hard could it be?" Sirius said.
"In that case, you should change the wager to, 'How long before Sirius burns the building down,'" Frank said.
"We should change it to, 'How long before I find better friends,'" Sirius retorted.
"That's not possible, Padfoot. It doesn't get any better than us," James added.
The rest of the night went pretty much like that. They all joked and talked about their N.E.W.T. results that they still hadn't received yet. Lennox talked about how she'd be attending the Wizarding Academy of the Arts in Autumn when Remus asked about her future plans. No one said anything about the war or the Order or any of the awful things the Prophet was still writing about. In fact, as they ate and drank and played Exploding Snap afterwards, Jane hardly even thought about any of those things.
Jane felt like a normal eighteen-year-old for a change, and it felt nice. It felt nice to talk to Lily about where she and Sirius had bought their wall decor. It felt nice to watch Alice kick James and Sirius' arses at Exploding Snap. It felt nice to poke her head out of her door to spy on Remus and Lennox as they left the flat together. It all just felt nice.
Currently, Jane was sitting on her bed in her and Sirius' new bedroom. She was rereading the label on her bottle of Anti-Fertility Potion, though by now she had practically memorised it. She knew how long it was affective for and the list of possible side effects. Still, she rolled the little bottle around in her hand nervously.
Jane knew that she wanted to have sex with Sirius; she knew that she was ready. That wasn't what was bothering her. The thing that bothered her was her lack of experience. What if it was no good for him? She silently wished that she had Sammy or Sarah to talk to and mentally cursed herself, wishing that she had paid more attention to the two whenever the topic had been brought up in the past.
Jane was shaken from her thoughts by the sound of the shower being shut off in the bathroom. Without further hesitation, Jane uncorked the bottle and downed its contents, throwing the now empty bottle into the small bin by the nightstand. A cold sensation spread through her lower abdomen, but as quickly as she felt it, it disappeared.
Jane walked over to the dressing table mirror to look at her reflection. She didn't look exceptionally sexy in her opinion. She just had on a white t-shirt and cotton shorts. She had already washed her makeup off and silently cursed herself for doing so. She had thrown her hair up into a messy bun, and at the time, she had thought it looked okay, but now, she was second guessing that opinion. She quickly let her hair back down, raking her fingers through it before Sirius appeared in the doorway of their bathroom, clad in his blue sweatpants, lazily drying his damp hair with a towel.
Jane took one look at his shirtless torso and inwardly groaned. How was it possible for someone to look so damn perfect? She was already subconscious enough about her body as it was. She hated her thighs, and her stomach wasn't quite as flat and toned as she would've liked it to be. She was beginning to wonder how she'd gotten Sirius Black to fall for her.
Sirius cast the towel aside, walking over to the bed and letting himself fall onto it with a grin on his handsome face.
"Well, I had fun tonight," he said happily. "We should do it again sometime. Maybe next time Mary's cat won't eat any magical fungi creatures and she and Marlene can actually show up."
Jane let out a small laugh, and Sirius realised that she had yet to move from where she was standing. He furrowed his brow.
"What're doing way over there? Is something wrong?"
Jane smiled a bit and walked over to the bed.
"Yes," she said, "you're on my side of the bed."
Sirius grinned and shook his head adamantly.
"Oh no, love. I have always slept on this side of the bed. You can sleep on the other side," he said, pointing out the empty side of the bed to his left.
"But that's not the side I sleep on," Jane replied.
"Well, it sounds like you're in quite the predicament," Sirius teased.
Jane slowly crawled onto the bed and straddled him.
"It would seem so," she whispered before kissing him suddenly.
Sirius responded slowly, placing his hands on Jane's waist. She ran her hands over his bare abdomen. Her fingertips grazed the fabric of his sweatpants, and she suddenly did something she'd never done before. She hooked her fingers under the waistband. At this, Sirius pulled out of the kiss, hoping to read her expression. However, Jane immediately moved to kiss his neck instead.
"Janie," he said, pushing her back just a bit; she looked at him.
"What is it?"
Sirius' eyes searched her face for a moment before he brought a hand up to caress her cheek lovingly as if trying to physically alleviate her worried expression.
"This doesn't change anything," he said suddenly.
Jane furrowed her brow, not quite sure what he was talking about.
"What do you mean?"
Sirius gently tucked some of her hair behind her ear before answering.
"Us being here," he finally said. "Just because we live together, doesn't mean—well, it doesn't mean that you have—I just don't want you to feel like you have to—"
"I know," Jane said, interrupting his jumbled speech. "I want to. I want you."
At her words, Sirius closed his eyes and let out what seemed to Jane to be an unsteady breath. And in the blink of an eye, she was on her back with Sirius hovering above her, heart racing.
"I'm gonna need you to say that again, love," he breathed, causing Jane to smile up at him, blushing just a bit.
"I want you, Sirius," she repeated. "I want all of you."
"Well, in that case, I'd be happy to oblige," he said before pressing his lips back to Jane's in a kiss that was the perfect mix between passionate and gentle that made Jane's head spin, breaking it only momentarily to whisper to her how much he loved her.
A/N: If you were hoping for smut, I'm sorry. I do not post smut on this website. (I remember the great fanfiction purge of 2012; that shit was no joke). I wouldn't be opposed to writing it as a writing prompt on my Tumblr page, though I don't have lots of practice in writing smut, so who knows how good it'd be? I suppose that's up to you guys. And yeah, I figured I'd just write something a bit light-hearted for this chapter to make myself feel better.