Poppy's POV

I woke up, surprised that I had fallen asleep. The sunlight was still streaming through the windows and it seemed that we hadn't been out for too long. I had thought Sirius was still asleep but a moment later I felt the hand on my ribs start to gently stroke me, making me smile.

"How you feeling?" Sirius asked me gently and I moved so I could see him properly, beaming up at him.

"Great. How are you doing?" I asked in return. He kissed me, keeping me as close to him as possible and I pressed myself against him, unable to help myself.

"Great. Even more so when I can feel you like this against me" he murmured, hand keeping me pressed against him. "Sure you're okay?" he asked, looking at me carefully.

"Positive" I told him. True, I felt a little achey but Sienna had warned me to expect that, saying it would just take some getting used to. He looked like he was going to ask me again, so I kissed him, stopping him in his tracks. "I'm good" I insisted, and he smiled at me now, moving himself so he was on top of me and grinning down at me.

"Good enough that we'll do that again?" he questioned, and I laughed, nodding.

"Yes, but not right now" I told him, and he smiled, giving me a kiss.

"To the beach then!" he said happily, making me laugh again as he gave me a kiss and then hopped spritely out of bed, turning to tug me up with enthusiasm.

We spent a lush afternoon by the beach, the both of us in the best of moods as we laid talking in the sun or playing in the sea, Sirius's hands all over me at all times and making me smile. After a picnic lunch we happily chatted away as we always did until I saw the suns light start to dim a little and begrudgingly told Sirius we would need to make a move. He pouted but relented, seeming much happier to move when I said we could come back tomorrow, our last before everybody else arrived.

When we got back to the house, I felt lighter, happy, the secret Sirius and I were carrying seeming to fuel me. All through dinner he kept catching my eye and grinning, reminding me of it all and I couldn't help but smile back, hoping we weren't being too obvious. Nobody said anything and so we went back to the beach house the next day too, spending way more time in bed than yesterday, exploring each other's bodies in ways we'd not done before. Just the feel of him against me was enough to thrill me and we made the most of the alone time we had together.

In the afternoon we hit the shops to get some food in so we were prepared, Sirius dragging me back to bed as soon as we'd unpacked which made me laugh but secretly pleased that he wanted me so much. Afterwards we put the final preparations to the house, washing the bedding as Sirius and I would be sleeping in my parents' room, before lounging at the beach whilst we waited for it to dry nicely in the sun.

"I'm going to miss it being just the two of us you know" Sirius told me as he stretched out in the sun to dry out from our swim, hands behind his head and looking very happy.

"Me too. But it will be nice to see everyone" I said, lying on my front so I could see him better. He turned to me, looking disbelieving. "What?! It will! Remember I've not seen anyone in a month!" I told him, making him laugh.

"Yeah, I guess you have a point" he replied, and I lightly hit him which just made him laugh even more before he rolled onto his side to better look at me. I saw him watching me carefully before he ran a hand down my back, sending a shiver up me and I saw how this made him grin.

"Stop being a tease" I said quietly, his grin only widening before he leant down and kissed me. Without thinking I adjusted myself, moving to my side so I could kiss him better and felt him press up against me. "Hey, we're in public" I reminded him, pulling away and seeing him smile.

"I'm not sure how I'm going to not touch you when everyone else is around" he told me, refusing to move right now and leaving his hand on my hip.

"Well you're going to have to do your best. We don't want to make everyone else uncomfortable with PDA" I replied, making him laugh at this.

"Uncomfortable? I think they'd just be jealous. Heads up, James hasn't been in the best mood since he's no longer getting any" he told me, and I looked at him in surprise.

"He's not seeing Olivia anymore?" I asked him and he shook his head; I wondered why he'd not said anything in his letters about this.

"She told him that she wanted to start afresh now she's finished Hogwarts, so it was bye to sex for James" he told me, fairly bluntly and I hit him with a frown.

"Don't be mean to him! Is he okay?" I asked and he shrugged.

"I mean, they weren't official or anything. They were literally just sleeping together" he reminded me.

"I know but remember why James slept with her in the first place" I said, remembering the night all too well.

"I know but, well, I think that kind of pushed him to really get Evans out of his head. Like, for real this time" he replied, sounding pensive.

"Really?" I asked in surprised and he nodded.

"He's not talked about her, directly or indirectly. I'm pretty sure he's not written to her. Nothing. Nada. Zero. So, tomorrow will be the first time he's seen her and for James, that might just be the longest he's gone so far" he informed me. It surprised me but, in a way, I was kind of glad; she very clearly didn't like him in any way, shape or form and I'd always thought he was wasting opportunities by being so hung up on her. So, to hear that he wasn't thinking about her like that anymore was actually quite a positive thing.

"That's a good thing, right?" I confirmed and Sirius nodded, giving me a smile.

"I certainly think so. What's the point on being hung up on Evans when she literally won't give him the time of day?" he questioned. Lily was my friend, but I nodded in agreement, curious to see what he would be like around her on this holiday.

The next day I woke up excited to see everybody. We had breakfast with my family, Sara and Phil saying they would pop over to the house this evening to say hi and make sure everything was okay. Sirius and I went to the Ministry at ten to collect everybody as they were all arriving in on the same portkey and when we finally saw them it was a very noisy and excited affair, gaining us some weird looks from people passing by. Once we had all said hi Sirius and I started disapparating people over and when that was done showed everybody around to their rooms. Sirius and I would be staying in my parents room, Lily and Alice in mine, Peter and Remus would be sharing in one of the guest rooms and Fiona and James in the other (we figured the latter two were related so they would be alright sharing and to be fair, they were fine with it). Once that was done everybody quickly got changed and we headed to the beach, the temperature already soaring for the day.

"Pop I can't believe that it's this close to the beach!" Lily exclaimed once we were settled on the sand, the boys having charged straight off into the water.

"I know it's amazing! You must have had the best times here in the summer" Fiona chipped in. The truth about my parents had come out at Easter when everybody had been around to mine. I had seen the questioning looks and the confusion when I hadn't referred to them as my parents and so once Phil and Sara had been out of ear shot, I had let everybody know. It had been difficult but having Sirius there had helped as of course, he already knew all of this. Thankfully, my friends didn't shower me in pity which is exactly what I wanted and after they had acknowledged it, we simply moved conversation on. I felt like they were a little more…careful, when referring to their own parents now but I knew they were still just taking some time to adjust to the news.

"It really was great you know. It brings back a lot of happy memories" I told them with a smile. They all gave me a small smile before we turned out attention back to the guys who looked like they were having a great time.

"So, how's your time been with Sirius?" Fiona asked me now with a grin and I did my best not to blush.

"It's been really good you know" I told her.

"I still can't quite believe he got rid of most of his hair" Alice chipped in and I scanned over to where he was stood, currently shoving James into the waves with a grin.

"I know, I like it though you know" I said and heard her hum of approval.

"I think it makes him hotter you know" she told me, sounding thoughtful.

"Hey, quit eyeing up my boyfriend" I teased her, making the others laugh.

"So, what have the two of you been up to?" Fiona asked and I could hear the insinuation in her tone.

"Well I took him to Place Cachée the first day and then the past two we've spent our days here" I told her, gesturing at the beach.

"Have you stayed here?" she asked me, now successfully making me blush.

"Nope we've been staying with Phil and Sara" I replied briefly. I could feel her watching me and turned to see her grinning.

"You two have totally done it, haven't you?" she asked, and I heard a gasp of surprise from both Lily and Alice.

"Fi! You can't just outrightly ask her like that!" Lily exclaimed, whacking her and making Fiona pout.

"Ouch! I can too! We're best friends! That's what best friends do!" she protested. I could sense their curiosity and I was thankful I had my sunglasses on so none of them could see my eyes. "Well? Have you?" she pushed. I hesitated before I nodded, hearing their squeals of excitement.

"Shut up! Oh my gosh you have to tell us everything!" Alice insisted, flipping onto her stomach and looking at me intensely.

"Not everything, you can leave some stuff out" Fiona told me with a frown, making the other two laugh.

"He's not your actual family you know" Lily reminded her although she shifted so she was close to me, looking eager.

"I know but he's like a brother to me and it would be weird" she insisted, scrunching up her face a bit. "Anyway, we're detracting. Poppy, spill everything!" Fiona told me and I glanced towards the boys before figuring I could tell them some stuff, just a bit.

We'd had a great time at the beach. Thankfully, I hadn't been able to tell the girls too much as the guys had re-joined us, but I knew I had told them enough to satiate their need for information. We lingered at the beach for an age before we headed up to the house about 5 where the guys decided to get in the pool and us girls showered and got ourselves ready for the evening. We'd decided to BBQ, and it wasn't going to be a hard job to get sorted, Sirius claiming he would sort it out (I dreaded to think).

I made sure not to take too long before heading back downstairs and was surprised to find Sara and Phil already here, happily chatting away to my friends. Sirius was being a showoff and kept talking to them in French which I knew amused the adults, our friends not so much. Anyway, Phil and Sara seemed satisfied we were happy and provided for, soon leaving us to our evening festivities. It was an awesome night, the guys all helped out with the BBQ which left us girls to mix up some drinks and we all get nicely drunk as the sun set, chatting happily away. I made Sirius stay up until everybody had gone to bed, wanting to make sure everybody was okay before we headed up ourselves which meant he fairly pounced on me as soon as we shut the door to the bedroom, making me laugh.

The rest of our week passed in a similar fashion; we woke up, breakfasted together in a somewhat hungover state and then we would usually linger by the pool in the morning, have lunch then head to the beach. It all felt so relaxing and I was so incredibly happy to have all my friends around me again. At the weekend, Max and Sienna had swung by to meet everybody and ended up staying the day with us, getting drunk and having to sleep on the sofa. It honestly made me so happy to see everybody getting on so well and I felt my spirits lift at the idea that this was what my future would entail from now on.

Finally, though, as good things are want to do, it came to an end and before I knew it I was taking everybody back to the French Ministry for a portkey back to the UK. Sirius was staying an extra day and I was hoping to convince Sara and Phil to let me go back to the UK early which would mean letting me go back by myself. I managed to get rid of Sirius for a couple hours by palming him off on Max, the two of them heading out for some male bonding which gave me a chance to ask Sara and Phil whether I could go back early. It was a long, drawn out conversation with neither of them feeling too fond of the idea. We'd heard too many rumours about what was happening, and they were reluctant to allow me to be by myself. However, as I reminded them, it was only going to be for a week as the rest of the family would then be spending the rest of the summer in the UK as planned. Plus, I reminded them, not only was I of legal age but I had just spent the first month of my summer holidays being specially trained. Like, surely that had to count for something, right?! After what felt like forever, they agreed on the proviso that I floo called here every evening, so they knew I was okay to which I was perfectly happy to promise. I was also made to promise no parties which I grudgingly admitted to, reminding myself I had to earn their trust first. After that, they were happy(ish) to let me travel back with Sirius and I felt elated at the idea that I could go back and spend more time with my friends. Afterwards, Sarah had made a gesture to Phil and he quickly disappeared, leaving me confused but she then, horrifyingly, asked whether I'd had sex with Sirius. Honestly, it was mortifying. And she knew I couldn't lie, well I could but she would know and therefore easily be able to establish the truth. Therefore, I had to admit that I had, and she then gave me yet another talk about responsibility etc. It was horrifying and I'm pretty sure I was the colour of a tomato the whole way through. However, I was rewarded when she then said Sirius could stay over at the house with me if I wanted, as she admitted it would make her feel better if I wasn't on my own and she liked and trusted Sirius (I wasn't about to suggest otherwise at this point). I was elated with this outcome, not having expected it at all and so gave her a huge hug, making her laugh. I then went and hurriedly packed all my things away, excited to go now.

Sirius was as elated as I was, even more so when he found out he could stay with me, obviously if the Potters agreed. He had grinned at me at this point which had made me suspicious, but he refused to tell me what he was planning which put me on edge.

Regardless, we had a really nice last evening with my family, all of them saying they'd really enjoyed being able to get to know Sirius better, a sentiment he happily reciprocated. I was able to just sit back and watch how easily he fit into my life, my heart fluttering at how much effort he'd put in to make me happy. The next morning Sara came with us to the French ministry to help sort my portkey out alongside Sirius which she managed with complete ease, flexing her surname to make things happen (she really enjoyed the opportunity to use it to her advantage). She then reminded me of my promises and our conversation before giving both myself and Sirius a huge hug, telling us she would see us both soon. With that, Sirius and I were away arriving back in the UK in a matter of minutes before making our way to mine, both of us happy and excited for our week together.