Chapter 1: Beguile

Lily Evans stood in a hidden alcove, fiddling with her books nervously as she prepared for her first attempt at seducing Sirius Black. A very shiny suit of armour showed her the empty hallway around the corner, the witch having hit it with a polishing charm so she could make out the reflection. Sirius would be alone coming from his Runes class, and she was lying in wait to pretend to bump into him.

Yes, it was a horribly cliché plan that she literally took straight from a trashy romance novel. But Lily – somewhat to her embarrassment – had never purposefully tried to get anyone to feel attracted to her, and she didn't know how else to do it. So she figured she would follow the books and engineer 'coincidental' meetings.

This was a terrible idea. What was she even thinking?

It's not as if she actually wanted to date Black, because handsome as he was, he had all the maturity of a horny thirteen-year-old. But he was the one person who would drive the dagger into both Severus and Potter the deepest, and at that moment, Lily was feeling angry enough to go through with it.

The bell rang, making her leap in fright, and her fellow sixth years began pouring out of the Runes classroom. She had heard Black complaining back in third year that his parents forced him to take the class, but he obviously came to enjoy it because he had kept it after O. , even though Remus had dropped out. It was easy to lump all four Marauders together as a collective, and Lily was guilty of doing so, but it was things like this that reminded her they were all individuals who had different interests as well.

Her palms became sweaty as Black came into view, and Lily sucked in a deep breath as she summoned up her courage and moved. She timed it so that just as she turned the corner, she ran straight into Black.

It all went as described in the books; girl turns corner, girl smacks into boy, boy notices girl and sees her in a new light.

What didn't happen in the novels was Lily smashing into Black so hard that she yelped, dropped her heavy texts onto her feet and yelped again, then stumbled back and fell on her arse.

There was a moment of silence as Black gaped down at her and she had to process what had happened.

To her horror, Lily felt tears springing to her eyes. Humiliating herself when she was trying to seduce someone was the last straw, and all her frustration, loneliness, and unhappiness threatened to spill over.

It was only two weeks into her sixth year, and it had begun miserably.

She and Severus hadn't exchanged a single kind word over the summer, though he had certainly tried. Lily had to threaten him with a restraining order from the muggle police, and only then he had stayed away. Petunia was her usual spiteful self, only worse, because now she was her vindicated spiteful self. Her parents just couldn't understand what she was going through, and she didn't have the heart to explain it to them.

Then there was the Daily Prophet, and the muggle disappearances had changed to muggle killings. There was a war brewing, everyone knew it, and it had cast a pall over all her Hogwarts years. When the summer finally ended, Severus tried to corner her on the train, but she had ignored him on her prefect rounds and then spelled her compartment shut for the rest of the journey.

To make matters worse, Potter had somehow gotten it into his big, empty head that Lily no longer being friends with Severus meant she would be willing to date him. How those two things correlated, she had no idea, because James Potter would need a personality transplant before she would even think about willingly going near him.

All this led up to Lily now biting back tears on the ground in front of Black after completely embarrassing herself.

"Shit, Evans, you okay?" Black frowned down at her with concern, and she felt even worse. Lily had always been strong in front of the Marauders, had to be for years, what with them bullying Severus. But now, a simple bump and she was crying. The mortification burned.

"I'm fine." She scrabbled for her books, allowing a curtain of red hair to cover her face, blinking hard.

"No you're not, your nose is bleeding."

She halted and raised a hand, fingers coming away crimson.

"Oh." She glanced up. "I'm sorry, I got blood on your shirt." Lily picked herself off the floor, profoundly grateful that at least she had a good excuse for her tears.

"No, it's my fault. I'll walk you to the hospital wing, Evans."

"No, really, you don't have to."

"It's no bother."

Lily stewed in her misery as Black walked her to the infirmary.

This – this was worst seduction attempt ever! Not only had she fallen on her arse and made an utter fool of herself, but she had bled all over him and her face was probably all blotchy like it got whenever she was upset. Lily vowed there and then to never attempt to seduce anyone ever again.

"Broken nose, deary?" Madam Pomphrey asked as the two Gryffindors entered her ward.

"No," Lily said nasally, cringing at how unattractive she sounded. "Just a nosebleed, I think."

Madam Pomphrey had her fixed up in a jiffy, telling her to sit on the bed while she brought over a small shot of blood replenisher.

Black set her books down on the table, a grin tugging at his lips. "No one will ever believe this. They'll say I'm making it up."

Lily frowned in confusion. "Making what up?"

"That my pecs are so hard I gave you a nosebleed." He smiled goofily, looking ridiculously proud of himself, and she felt a spurt of involuntary laughter escape.

"You're ridiculous, Black. Is that even something to be proud of?"

He looked at her like she was crazy. "Obviously."

She shook her head, but smiled slightly, feeling a bit better. The crimson of her blood stood out starkly on his white shirt, catching her eye.

"Here, I'll clean your shirt for you." She waved him closer and took out her wand. Regular cleaning spells didn't work on blood, but Lily knew a specialised one that should get rid of it.

Black's eyebrows shot up, then he grinned. Her eyes bulged as he began undoing his buttons right in front of her to reveal aforementioned pecs, and Lily flushed bright red.

"What are you doing!?" she burst out, belatedly turning away.

"Aren't you going to clean my shirt for me?" Black asked innocently, and her head whipped back to glare at him.

"Why would you take it off? I was going to spell it clean you - you empty-headed troll!"

Black snorted with laughter, finally rebuttoning his shirt before sauntering over to her so he was scarcely a foot away, holding his arms out invitingly.

"Have at me," he grinned roguishly.

Lily pursed her lips but did cast the spell, siphoning the blood so his shirt was spotless once again.

"Cheers. Well, I'll see you later Evans." He shot her a wink and left.

Lily saw him again that evening when she came back from finishing her Charms essay in the library. He was sitting with his friends in their usual spot near the fire, hogging the best seats as they always did.

"I'm serious!" Black was saying. "My pecs are so hard they cause nosebleeds."

Potter was laughing so hard he was crying, Remus and Pettigrew not faring any better.

"I've heard you claim a lot of things over the years, Padfoot, but this is by far the best," Potter gasped and wiped his eyes.

Black caught sight of her as she crossed the common room, his face lighting up. "Come on, Evans, you tell them."

Lily paused, raising an eyebrow at his expectant expression.

"Honestly, Black, do you really expect anyone to believe your muscles are hard enough to give someone a nosebleed when they walk into you? Nice try."

Lily left him spluttering behind her as his friends roared with laughter. She climbed the girls' staircase to her dorm, glad he couldn't see the grin on her lips.

The next time she bumped into Black, it truly was an accident.

Had Lily not already known how badly trashy summer romance novels let her down, she might have even deluded herself into thinking she was in one. Because she wasn't that type of girl, she knew she was just running into him because they lived in the same castle.

The witch had visited the owlery after dinner to send off a letter to her parents and Petunia, two envelopes in hand. As she selected a local post bird and was attaching the parchment, she hesitated.

Her sister hadn't talked to her properly in years, not since Lily invited her friends over for the summer after second year, and Petunia had spent the entire time calling them freaks. She'd been so embarrassed and they'd had a massive row – their biggest yet – and neither had apologised with any sincerity, merely putting on a show for their parents. Her indecision showed on her face, and she stared morosely down at the envelope. It was emotionally draining to keep extending an olive branch, only for her sister to spit on her efforts.

The owl impatiently bit her hand.

"Ow!" she cried, yanking it back, blood welling from the cut. Some of it got onto Petunia's letter, and she knew her sister would certainly turn her nose up at it now.

"Oh, fine," she snapped. "Just one letter to Cokeworth."

The owl took off and Lily looked down at her useless attempt and wondered why she had even bothered. Suddenly overcome with a burst of anger, she ripped it up, dropping the pieces to the ground and stamping again and again until her words were illegible beneath the dirt of her shoe.

"Whoa, what's gotten your knickers in a twist?"

Lily spun around to see Sirius Black standing there, his palms held up as if to ward off her anger.

"Oh, it's you."

"I think you mean to say, 'hurray, it's you!'" he returned chirpily, holding out an arm to signal for an owl to alight on it.

"So who pissed you off so bad you took it out on that poor letter, Evans?" he continued as he tied his own one to the bird's leg.

Lily hesitated, then decided it wasn't a big deal if he knew - her friends had already experienced what Petunia was like anyways.

"It's my sister," she sighed. "She can't stand me because I'm a witch."

"Gringotts," he told the owl, and flew it off. The Black turned to her, eyebrows raised.

"Your sister doesn't like you because you're a witch?" he repeated slowly, like the words didn't compute. Lily huffed a laugh at such a pureblood attitude, though really, she completely understood. Having magic was always something to be celebrated.

"Petunia's…" she searched around for an adequate word that wasn't too acerbic. "Difficult."

"Don't take it to heart, Evans. Some muggles just can't stand the idea of magic."

"Not all of them," she said defensively, because her parents had always been wonderfully supportive.

"Never said it was all of them," he agreed easily. "But muggles are just people; some will love magic, others will hate it, just as some wizards hate muggles, love them, or don't care one way or another." He shrugged, not realising how taken aback Lily was at hearing her own thoughts on muggles spoken aloud by him. "Personally, I think they make great music."

"Oh? What's your favourite song?" she challenged.

"I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping," he sung instead, grey eyes shining.

Lily's brows shot up. "You know the Beatles?"

"Know them?" he laughed. "I've been to see them!"

"No way!" She didn't believe it. "You, Sirius Black, the most wizardly wizard since Dumbledore, at a muggle concert?"

Lily knew he wore muggle clothing, but she thought that was just part of his rebel, bad boy image.

"Wizardly wizard, am I?" Sirius waggled his eyebrows at her, and she laughed and shoved him.

"Oh come off it, you know what I mean. You're the last person who would be mistaken for a muggle."

She meant it too – Sirius lived, breathed, and oozed magic, wandlessly summoning things he needed or lighting candles without even looking at them. The kind of magic Lily had performed as a child, except done instinctively in way she would have had she not grown up with muggles and learnt to keep her magic hidden.

"I'll have you know I'm an expert of muggle culture."

"You didn't even take muggle studies!"

"Doesn't mean I can't learn," he shot back grinning proudly. "I even bought a motorbike over the summer; gonna set her up with propulsion charms and see how she flies."

Lily leaned forward, intrigued. "Really? Are you going to use the same charms they use on broomsticks, because those are kept secret-"

They end up discussing the intricacies of their enchanting projects – Lily was working on a Christmas gift for Slughorn (he called her a suck-up), the muggle bands they liked (Lily was beyond envious he'd seen The Beatles in person), and the films they had seen (Sirius had only ever been to one, and Lily called him a poor, deprived soul).

Only after another student arrived with a letter did they realise the sun was setting on them, and they had been speaking for hours. Lily suddenly felt freezing from being out in the cool September weather, and her legs were sore from standing so long.

"Bugger, is it this late already?" Sirius was taken aback as he looked at the dimming sky. "I'm late for detention with Flitwick."

Lily shook her head as they left the owlery. "What did you do this time?"

He grinned, grey eyes sparkling with mischief and her heart skipped a beat. She knew he was one of the most handsome boys at Hogwarts, but she had never really understood it before now.

"Slipped up in front of Flitwick and he figured out I was responsible for the Ravenclaws sneezing slugs last week."

"That was you? What am I saying, of course that was you." Lily frowned disapprovingly.

Sirius nodded proudly, not an ounce of shame to be seen. "Modified slug spitter," he announced grandly.

"The slug spitter?" Her eyebrows rose. "How did you-" no, she wouldn't be distracted. "You shouldn't have done that," Lily scolded. "Some of the first years were really upset, and Elodie Macintosh nearly fainted." Though really, Elodie passed out at everything - blood, beetles, slugs. She was taking Creatures for reasons that escaped Lily's mind, and Elodie's latest fainting spell was cheap currency for the rumour mill.

They stopped just inside the large double doors leading to the entrance hall, and Sirius leaned in, a knowing grin on his face. "You were going ask how I managed to conjure slugs in their nostrils instead of their throats, weren't you?"

Lily felt her cheeks turn red, flustered by how close he was. She could smell his shampoo, an unmistakable masculine scent that made something flutter in her stomach.

"There's nothing wrong with academic interest," she defended, feeling oddly vulnerable.

He sent her a sly look. "I'm sure that's the only reason you want to know."

"Well, I wouldn't mind seeing you snort out a slug," she bristled, and Sirius threw his head back, laughter ringing through the entire entranceway. The rich sound made Lily also want to smile, but she quashed it because she was supposed to be annoyed at him.

"Well?" she grumped. "How did you modify the spell?"

"Trade secret, Evans," her winked, smiling at her frustration.

Just as Lily was going to keep pressing for details, an angry shout caused them both to jump.

"Mr. Black! Since you think you're too good for detention, you can spend the weekend helping me sort through my entire stockpile of old essays instead."

Professor Flitwick was there, frowning sternly, his usual cheer nowhere to be seen. His foot tapped impatiently.

"Shite," Sirius swore under his breath, scrambling to follow. He stopped and hesitated, something uncertain flitting across his face as he turned back to look at her. He cleared his throat.

"I'll –uh. I'll see you later, Evans."

"Yeah," Lily shuffled her feet, equally caught off guard at the realisation that they had spent an entire afternoon together, and she had enjoyed herself. "See you later, Sirius."

It was only after she had tucked herself into bed that night that Lily realised over the course of their conversation, Black had become Sirius.

Lily had to re-evaluate her impression of Sirius Black over the next few weeks. She noticed all the things she had never been looking for, and discovered that despite sharing a common room and most of their classes together for years, she really didn't know him at all.

She had never noticed him sneaking glances at the Slytherin table, never noticed how he kept an eye and ear out for his younger brother. Didn't realise how he would sometimes glance up at the post owls with a mix of longing and trepidation, only to pretend he hadn't by making some stupid joke with his friends. How he no longer received post from anyone unless it was something he ordered.

Oh, he was still the same annoying git he had always been; he joked with his friends, disrupted classes, flirted with any pretty witch in sight, flirted outrageously with Professor McGonagall, and was just a general menace. But that wasn't all he was, and Lily found herself subconsciously searching for hints of the other side of Sirius Black most people didn't realise existed.

Even his regular persona had its charms. When he wasn't picking on people, Sirius was genuinely funny, and Lily had had to stop herself from laughing at some of the antics he got up to over the course of their schooling together. She remembered how he would sometimes slip up in their early years, how it had taken until third year for him to stop accidentally saying mudblood. He'd been raised to know nothing but prejudice and bigotry, and he had overcome it.

Sirius was an intelligent wizard, a man of principle, and a fierce friend.

Lily caught him breaking curfew one night in October, strolling out from behind a tapestry and giving them both the shock of their life when the other suddenly materialised.

"Evans," he halted in his tracks, scarcely a foot away.

"Black," she returned. "You're breaking curfew."

"So are you," he smirked. When she continued to look unimpressed, he added, "Gryffindor already needs all the help we can get. Let me off this once, won't you?"

He tried for his usual grin that Lily had seen him use to get away with far worse deeds, but didn't quite manage it.

Things had been… strange between them ever since that day in the owlery. She caught herself looking at him more than before, her eyes finding him when they were in class and her attention wandered.

Sometimes she thought she saw him staring back, but every time she turned to check, he was looking in another direction.

Lily also tried to carry on like normal and shot him a deadpan stare. "That's because a sentient slime creature disguised as a cat nearly ate Filch when he mistook it for Mrs. Norris." She couldn't quite keep her lips from twitching.

"Ugh, McGonagall is so biased. That wasn't even us!" Sirius complained, then trailed off when he saw her face.

"No way," he said disbelievingly, leaning in to scan her expression intensely. "Was it you, Evans?"

As a matter of fact, it had been Mary – as revenge for Filch screaming at her and threatening to string her up by her ankles when she accidentally tracked mud in – but Lily had helped brew the potion.

She smiled secretively. "A witch never tells."

"Lily Evans!" he exclaimed, shocked and delighted, and she laughed.

When their mirth faded, the atmosphere changed from awkward to charged, tense in a way she had never experienced before. Lily was suddenly painfully aware of how close they were, how his hair fell in gentle waves, how the shadows cast by her wandlight danced across his aristocratic features.

His eyes were the exact shade of stratus clouds, and they were threatening to drown her in their depths.

The brush of his lips on hers was as shocking as it was exhilarating, like a firestorm springing to life spontaneously amidst a dry, grassy field, scorching the earth before anything could stop it. His hand in her hair felt searingly hot; or maybe she was the one who was burning as they kissed passionately, tongues tangling as they tasted one another. Lily could feel those butterflies people always talked about, could feel her body tingle from head to toe, her heart threatening to beat straight out of her chest.

When they drew back for air, her eyes fluttered open to meet his, and for a moment it was thrilling, beautiful, and perfect.

And then Sirius ruined it.

"Shit, James is going to kill me."

Fury swept through her, destroying all the fluttery bliss in an instant.

"James Potter has nothing to do with me!" she hissed angrily. "I've told everyone a thousand times that I'm never going to date him."

Sirius looked helpless. "I know, but he really loves you," he said unconvincingly, like he was simply repeating words he'd heard a thousand times.

"Well I don't love him," she snapped, "and I never will."

"If you gave him a chance-"

"And what about what I want!?" Lily demanded. "What if I want you to give me a chance?"

She had never seen him so gobsmacked in her entire life. "You – you fancy me?" he spluttered.

"I could. But it wouldn't matter to anyone now, would it?" she said snidely. "Do you know how demeaning it is to have someone ignore my choice, to chase after me like I'm some sort of – of pretty bauble for him to collect!?"

"James doesn't think that way!" Sirius cried.

"That's what it feels like!" she shouted back, and he made a pained face, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably. Lily deflated.

"I'm sorry," she said stiffly. "I shouldn't be yelling at you for Potters actions."

"Look, I know you don't like him, but-"

But he's my friend. Lily heard the unspoken words loud and clear.

She laughed bitterly. "Whatever. Why am I bothering?"

It hurt. It wasn't because he didn't fancy her, or that she had expected him to 'betray' his best friend for their… whatever this was. And while she had uncovered a new side to Sirius, she couldn't quite say she fancied him either.

So while his rejection stung, it was the fact that Sirius clearly viewed her as James' girl that made her so furious.

Lily turned on her heel and stalked off.

Sirius didn't stop her.

Lily spent extra time in front of the mirror that morning, making sure not a single trace of her upset showed on the outside. But her mood wasn't nearly as easily fixed, and she picked at her breakfast morosely as Mary and Alice talked about inconsequential topics, her friends letting her have some peace. She was grateful because she truly wasn't feeling up to company that day.

Si- Black came in with his friends, and Lily determinedly bit into her toast instead of looking at him. All she wanted was a quiet day so she could pull herself together and be back to normal tomorrow. She would go back to calling the Marauders immature toerags, Black would return to being just another classmate, and all would be well with the world.

It was simply truly terrible timing that Potter chose that day to ask her out to Hogsmeade again.

"Evans!" he called as he got up from his seat and approached her. "Hogsmeade with me this weekend?"

"No, Potter," Lily droned, not in the mood.

"Come on Evans, it'll be fun."

"I said no," she repeated, annoyance curdling her insides. Behind him, Black looked thoroughly uncomfortable and tried tugging Potter to sit down.

"James," Sirius hissed, more awkward than Lily had ever seen him look before. "James, don't."

"You'll never know till you try it," Potter ignored him and winked, a hand making his already messy hair even worse. "Just one date," he cajoled, and Lily – something in her just snapped.

She stood up so suddenly the bench nearly toppled over, its wooden legs screeching angrily against the stone floor. Her voice was ice cold, a stark contrast to her boiling fury.

"I already told you no."

She felt like she was underwater, the whole world taking on a hazy quality as she whipped out her wand and sent the first spell that came to mind at him.

Potter howled and crumpled to the floor as her shrivelling hex hit his crotch, and Lily's eyes met Sirius' over his collapsed form. The other Gryffindor looked stricken. Shocked and guilty, as if he had done something wrong.

Well he had, he'd rejected her just because his stupid friend thought he had a claim on her, as if she belonged to him. He had stood by as Potter chased after her even though she kept telling him no.

Lily must have looked truly incandescent because nobody dared to move even though Potter was on the ground clutching his balls.

"Evans," Sirius gulped, made to reach for her, hesitated, all the while still looking at her with those wide grey eyes, and Lily –

She was flushed and breathing heavily, and everyone was staring, and she had just hexed a fellow student in front of the professors –

Her lower lip trembled.

She fled from the room, ignoring her friends calling after her.

She skipped all her classes that day, unable to summon up any Gryffindor bravery to face the music and the detections that surely must be waiting for her.

Sirius was the one who found her on the seventh floor, in a dusty, abandoned room. The furniture suggested it used to be a private living chamber, with an ancient couch pushed up to one side, a wardrobe and mirror on the other. Fading sunlight spilled through the glass over her red hair, setting it aglow as she sat curled up on the windowsill, staring out at the Forbidden Forest.

"Evans."

Lily didn't move, kept her head resting on the cool glass. Sirius crossed the room to stand beside her.

"Lily."

It was the first time he ever called her by her first name, and that's what made her turn to look at him. Sirius had none of his usual swagger, none of his joking demeanour. Instead, he looked down at her with soft eyes, remorse on his face.

"I'm sorry."

Truly rare words to hear from Sirius Black, but Lily was too emotionally wrung out and didn't feel moved.

"What for?"

He shuffled uncomfortably. "For everything; for being a berk, for not stopping James when you were uncomfortable," he paused before forging on, "and for ruining our kiss last night."

Lily felt embarrassed, as if somehow hearing it aloud made it more real. "You don't need to apologise for Potter. It's not your job to police him, and you aren't responsible for his actions. I certainly won't be forgiving him anytime soon, but... I forgive you for being a berk. And, well, it was a good kiss."

That startled a laugh out of him. "Thanks, Lily. It was a good kiss."

"Until you ruined it."

The humour quickly faded from his face. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry," he said again, and she knew he meant it.

"I forgive you."

He smiled at her words, a gentle quirk of his lips that looked more genuine than any of the roguish grins he wore on a daily basis.

Her stomach broke the serious atmosphere with an enormous growl.

Lily blushed as he burst out laughing, and Sirius grinned in return before leaning back and grabbing a plate of sandwiches from the side table she hadn't noticed earlier.

"Here," he passed it to her between snickers, sitting down next to her on the windowsill. "I know you missed lunch and dinner, so I brought you these."

They were her favourites: chicken and sweetcorn as well as ham and mayo. Lily was touched at the gesture, and she tore ravenously into them, washing it down with the goblet of pumpkin juice he had also brought.

"Madam Pomphrey undid your shrivelling hex," Sirius told her as she ate, and Lily flushed with shame.

"I didn't – I shouldn't have done that," she said looking away, chagrined.

"Hey, no permanent harm done," he was rather blasé about her hexing his best friend's balls in front of the whole school. "Though James'll have to spend the night in the hospital wing," he chuckled.

"You're not mad?" she asked tentatively.

"Nah. It was a long time coming."

Despite agreeing emphatically, Lily still felt bad for using such a violent spell and for losing her temper. While she disliked Potter, that didn't mean she wanted to hurt him.

After she finished eating, they simply sat there for a long time in surprisingly comfortable silence, watching the last of the sun's rays fade as it set beneath the crimson sky. When the last of the yellow orb had vanished beneath the horizon, Lily turned to Sirius.

He looks beautiful, was her first thought. Their faces were so close she could make out the flecks of silver in his grey eyes, the freckle beneath his left eyebrow, the faint stubble on his chin.

She leaned in and pressed her lips gently to his, their breath mingling as she pulled back with a question in her gaze. Sirius answered when he kissed her again, and as he pulled her into his lap, she pressed against him eagerly. When his tongue ran along the roof of her mouth and his hands teased at the skin on her waist, Lily rolled her hips against his. He pulled back to rest his forehead against hers, desire naked upon his face.

"Lily." His voice was huskier than normal, a warning carried in her name.

Perhaps it was the emotional rollercoaster she had been wrung through. Perhaps it was because she wanted to purge any idea of belonging to James Potter from Sirius' mind. Or maybe it was because the fading light draped Sirius in oranges, reds, and golds, and he looked so beautiful she could hardly stand it.

Lily made her choice.

"I want you, Sirius," she whispered, peering up enticingly from beneath her lashes, green eyes beguiling. "Do you want me too?"

After that –

Not even Sirius Black's legendary loyalty to his friends was enough to prevent the desire pooling in his eyes, to keep him from shoving her up against the window and kissing her desperately, to stop his hands as they peeled her clothing from her skin.

Because she had first-hand experience with how the books lied about romance, Lily was expecting it to be uncomfortable, awkward, and painful – like Marlene had told them it had been during her first time with Amos Diggory back in fifth year.

Instead, Lily only felt an unfamiliar stretch in her lower half, and then she was so full, something hot and hard inside of her and it made her want to squirm. Sirius moaned almost drunkenly above her, eyes half-lidded with pleasure and dark with desire.

The moment he entered, Lily's heart began a tempo too quick for her to keep up with, tripping and stuttering over itself as Sirius pulled out, sliding slowly back in. A wave of pleasure swept through her making her toes curl, and her nails bit deeply into Sirius' back. He shuddered with delight, a hand coming up to tangle in her hair.

Something was singing in her veins, something that felt like blood, power, and magic all intertwined with utter bliss. She was spiralling higher and higher, and when Sirius began thrusting faster, deeper, harder, it was all Lily could do to gasp and writhe in time with his movements.

"Lily," he moaned into her ear, worshipfully, reverently – as if she was a goddess and he was praying at her altar, and she whimpered and clenched in response.

Oh – oh gods. No one had said it would be like this. If she had known –

Her thoughts disappeared as he plunged in so deep she saw stars. She clung to him and drowned in the sensation of his and her magic colliding, coiling, and joining together.

They lay sweaty and sated on the mattress and sheets Sirius had transfigured from the couch and curtains, and at any other time Lily would have remarked upon how easily he had done those spells. But right now all she could think was that it had been magical. Literally magical.

"Lily."

Sirius said her name with such veneration, that at first, she doubted he was speaking to her.

"Lily, you just gave me your virginity," he choked out, looking at her with awe, and Lily felt her cheeks bloom.

"Don't – why are you saying that!?" she stuttered uncharacteristically, pulling the covers up. Why was he making such a big deal of it? She'd heard the filthiest stories from Marlene, and general gossip left her knowing he was plenty experienced.

He rolled over to cage her in his arms, gently pulling the sheets from her flustered face, tracing a finger down her jaw like he was touching delicate glass.

"You're a Light witch, and you willingly gave me your virginity."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "Why does that matter?"

"It normally doesn't," he breathed, "because there are so few people who are truly Light or Dark. Most magicals are neutral their entire lives. But when a witch or wizard whose spirit is pure touches upon the Deep Magicks, they become a sorcerer, of either Light or Dark."

The Deep Magicks.

Lily shivered as she recalled the ancient text she found back in her fourth year, stuffed away in the rarely visited History section. She hadn't really known what she was doing when she did that blood ritual to fix her eyesight, simply thinking it was wonderful she wouldn't have to get glasses. She had only learned of the significance of blood magic later.

"The willing gift of a Light witch's virginity to a Dark wizard is one of the most prized gifts of magic to exist," Sirius told her, uncharacteristically serious. "If someone tries to curse me in the back, it'll never work unless it's an Unforgivable. If someone tries to have me killed in my sleep, they'll never succeed. The only way I can die is by a true accident, in battle, or of old age."

"Oh." Her eyes blew wide as she realised what a big deal this was. People would do unspeakable things for that kind of protection. Old stories and Grimm fairy tales came back to her, and she knew people had.

But one thing Lily didn't understand was,"You don't use dark magic though. Not where I've seen at least."

Sirius was nothing like the dark wizards in Slytherin, like creepy Mulciber who had used that horrible mind spell on Mary last year to force her to do a strip tease. Or even Severus who had practically confessed to wanting to become a Death Eater.

"Do you know the Black family motto?"

"Toujours pur," she whispered up at him, and Sirius all but shuddered.

"Yes," he breathed, breath ghosting on her skin, and goosebumps rose in response. "Always pure. Not just of blood, but of magic. Blacks are always pure Dark, and as soon as we touch the magicks, there's no going back."

His face hovered right above hers, inches away, and Lily was practically bursting with desire. He kissed her, lips barely brushing. Then again, this time bruising with tongues clashing, rendering her a winded mess.

"So it won't always be like this?" she finally asked when they stopped to catch their breath, unable to hide her disappointment.

Tonight had been –

It was –

"It'll be better," Sirius rumbled, voice filled with promise and grey eyes dark with lust, and Lily trembled.

She gave him her second, third, and fourth time that night as well.