Chapter Twenty-One

Chocolate and Maps But Not Together

I knew he'd entered the room by the way the atmosphere physically shifted; the air was filled with warm, feverish whispers at the grace of his presence, and though their words were not audible, it was hard to ignore their significance.

It was absurdity that I'd never noticed it before, honestly, and the looming and overbearing pain in my stomach was just an unfair reaction on my own part. Several vital organs - like my head and stomach, just to name a few - had suffered invariably due to Sirius, what with the unjust butterflies and the crazed, warring thoughts, and the fact that I hadn't notice such a slight thing and was now creating additional pain for myself was just downright indecent to do to my poor organs.

I just never had any particular reason to notice how girls reacted to Sirius. If I ever had noticed, I wouldn't have necessarily cared, either, would I? I used to just think that he was the one who had taken to all the girls all these years. And it wasn't that he hadn't, but it took two to tango and he had certainly always been well received. He had that effect.

It wasn't as if he was a celebrity, though. He was certainly no Gilderoy Lockhart (the man was a good ten years older than me and I'd never cared to read his single best-selling Voyages with Vampires, but he was quite the looker and I'd heard of girls fainting at his book signings). So no, he wasn't quite like that. Sirius was just another bloke, after all, but it was almost natural to pay more attention to those that were better looking, and that was the way people reacted when he walked into a room. Like they were doing right then.

I chanced a look his way and found him just making way through the door. He ran an idle hand through his dark hair, tousling it back from his face and setting it into place like a trademark. He had a carefree stride as he passed through, and a group of girls who had previously been bent over their textbooks glanced up slowly and without regard as he slid past them. Their eyes lingered for a few moments and then fell back to their own business shortly. That was the effect he had. Subtle, but definite, and impossible to deny.

Perhaps not impossible, but definitely pointless.

I'd really never noticed Sirius like that. Sure, I'd always known he was attractive, and sure, I'd always known he'd had it easy when it came to "getting a bird," as James liked to say, but I'd never noticed the stares. Subtle they might be, they still were unsettling. People didn't look up like that when I walked in the room, after all.

It was almost like seeing him in an entirely new light. What else had I missed? It frightened me a bit, as much I regretted thinking it. I was treading hazy waters and it unnerved me, like when I'd admitted my fancy to Lily or when I'd come this close to kissing Sirius. There was so much up at stake. So much to lose…

But there was that, the fact that I had kissed him. Not almost. I really had. My overwhelming, squeamish feelings were returned, though possibly less squeamish on his part, and that alone was heart stopping. All these girls, with their eyes darting to and from him, and he'd chosen me. What was that? I wasn't even dreaming. Believe me, I'd checked numerous times.

They were only whispers, anyways. They weren't death threats or glares aimed my way. It was innocent attention on their parts, and really, who could blame them?

"Hi."

I looked up and the boy of question was in front of me, grey eyes glinting mischievously, mouth turned upwards at one corner. My heart hammered in my throat and suddenly my train of thought hit a stop, because what good did over analyzing ever do, really?

Remus, James, Lily, and Peter were all sitting around me, but he sat down and didn't acknowledge a one of them. It was me he had approached, me had had singularly said hello to, me that currently held his full attention. It was an odd thing to internalize, as well as pulse driving. One night and everything was drastically different. Odd. There were boundaries that had been set without either of our knowledge, and they had now been indefinitely crossed with no hope of redemption. It hadn't just happened overnight, though. It took me a long time to finally accept that I couldn't just see Sirius as a normal friend anymore. He wasn't just a Remus or James or Peter. He was unique, very, very unique, and now we were in unknown territory, staring each other down, waiting for the other to make the next move.

"Hey," I tossed back, and he smiled curiously as he took the seat directly across from me at the table. I held his gaze and smiled back, saying nothing more. He raised a brow, questioning me silently, and I mimicked him, raising my own brow. He frowned and I frowned, he stared blankly and so did I. He was beginning to get frustrated and that was the end of my mimicking; when he narrowed his eyes I broke and burst out laughing.

It took a few moments for me to sober and when I'd returned to my senses, he was smiling in accomplishment that he'd defeated me. I realized slowly then that the other four were staring at us incredulously and the look on Sirius's face indicated that he'd only just noticed also.

"Hello, you lot," he said, nodding to them sheepishly and shooting me a sly smile.

They all mumbled hellos, someone throwing in an, "inconsiderate nutcases," but it went straight over our heads and the other four quickly resumed their studying unperturbed. I decided it would be wise if I did so as well, seeing as that was what I had been doing before Sirius unceremoniously interrupted. I dipped my head over my book and zoned my focus in on the words with diligence. I kept trying to process their meaning in my head, over and over and over, but the longer I went on, the more difficult it was to focus. The Fourth Ancient Goblin War did not prove to be very enthralling. It didn't help that Sirius was repeatedly tapping my shin with the front of his shoe, either.

I glanced up with resignation and found he was already looking at me, like he'd been waiting for me to give up for hours. He mouthed, "Let's go," and nodded to the door.

The Fourth Ancient Goblin War wasn't going to change tomorrow, was it? I closed my book quickly and cast skeptical glances towards the others; Sirius shrugged, seeming to agree that we didn't need to bother them by announcing our departure. They probably would be very unhappy when they realized we'd run off without them, but they were busy, and that was my excuse.

I gathered my things and tossed them in my bag with no reaction from the others. I left then with Sirius in silence, and when we got through the great wooden doors that were our freedom, Sirius glanced back over his shoulder and waved with a cheeky grin.

"Who're you waving at?" I asked as he closed the door with a kick.

"Our friendly lot," he laughed. "Did you see the looks on their faces?"

"No, I didn't dare look," I said, squeezing my shoulders inward like I was frightened.

"They looked a little… ah… put off. Lily especially."

"You think they suspected something?"

"What's to suspect?" He winked. "Nah. Well, where are we off to, Gracie?"

I hummed thoughtfully and drummed my fingers along my chin. "Dunno. Where do people go at one o'clock on a Saturday afternoon?"

"Hogsmeade it is!" Sirius announced with excitement. "You always have the best ideas."

I rolled my eyes and let him lead me through the castle by the hand. I liked the feeling of our fingers interlocked because it reminded me that this was real. There was no drifting off back to the friend zone. He was holding me here on the other side of this boundary and I felt so inexplicably safe. Just a simple little gesture. It was nice. After weaving through endless corridors, we finally ended up outside in the chill air. I pulled him along this time with increased enthusiasm.

"It's so warm today!" I yelped, darting off from Sirius and into the village.

But I was only away from Sirius for a moment. I slipped promptly on an ice patch and landed on my bum with a thud.

I groaned loudly and shook off his attempts to help me up. His manic laughter wasn't aiding my dignity. I stuck my tongue out at him when he stuck his hand out again and offered help. Feeling mischievous, I took advantage of the moment, gripped his fingers, and yanked him down on the ground beside me. He in turn took advantage of our proximity and scooped my face in his hands. He planted a kiss on my lips and then pulled away, looking just as mischievous. "You know, it really isn't that warm today."

"But you're always cold, so your opinion is irrelevant," I said matter-of-factly. I wrestled myself to my feet and helped him up from the ground.

"You know a place that's really warm? Honeydukes. I'm in dire need of a sugar fix."

I went along with him without mentioning I'd been craving a licorice wand for ages. Half an hour of digging through Honeydukes later, a rather satisfied looking Sirius was sitting on a half-frozen bench with a bag overflowing with numerous sweets. I was perched on the bench in the spot beside him, watching with amusement as he pulled out his precious finds and inspected them beneath the hazy sunlight.

"Look at this," he said, holding out a piece of chocolate. "This looks odd. I think it's dirt flavored. You try it."

I was about to protest and claim that he was disgusting, but he shoved the chocolate in my mouth and cut my words short. I grumbled but found after a few discontented moments that it was in fact not dirt flavored and was actually quite delicious. I couldn't put my finger on the taste, and so I decided it must just be a magical flavor. It seemed to fit.

"Well, that wasn't quite a dirt reaction." He eyed me thoughtfully. "Is it any good?"

"Mhm," I mumbled with a little nod.

"Really?"

I swallowed the last bit and said, "Yeah. Here, try it for yourself." I reached for another piece and held it in front of his mouth. He bit off a piece of chocolate, then savored it slowly, eyes lighting up. I took the rest of the chocolate in my hand and smeared it over his mouth before he could move again. He laughed, started as if he was going to say something, but I didn't let him finish and instead leaned in and pressed my mouth against his. I kissed the chocolate away, slowly, resisting his laughter by pulling myself in close to him and kissing him even more fervently. He tasted marvelously, and when the chocolate was gone, Sirius finally sobered, returning the kiss just as passionately. We got lost in that moment, so tangled up and drawn into each other that when we finally had to break apart, I was breathless.

"Little trickster," Sirius breathed against my skin teasingly.

I pulled back and straightened myself. "Sorry," I said, reddening, "people could have seen that, couldn't they? I forgot." Most of the seventh years were in a craze over NEWTs and had spent the day inside, so anyone I was overly acquainted with probably wasn't in risk of seeing that, but there were still people with rambunctious and uncontrollable mouths around.

He shrugged. "So what?"

"Well. I dunno." I looked at him blankly.

"Hm." He tilted his head slightly. "I mean, I see your point. We could just keep this low-key."

I nodded. We'd been fairly hushed about it already, really, without even communicating it. "Just for now, you know? It's kind of sudden."

"Yeah. Good thinking." He poked me in the side. "Want more chocolate?"

"Sure." Then I smiled, and added, "I'll keep my hands off you this time."

He laughed lightly and fed me another chocolate. I hummed a 'mmm,' and he said quietly, "Don't make promises you don't intend on keeping, Gracie."

"Ahem." Lily was staring me down, eyebrows raised sternly. She was sitting at the edge of the divan with a look that pinned me to the spot. The rest of the common room was bustling with vivacious noise, as the afternoon had just passed into evening. "Where have you and Sirius been going off to all this time?"

"I'm sorry, what?" I looked up innocently from the last page in the History book about that damned Fourth Ancient Goblin War, which I had, I am proud to say, finally completed reading.

"Where are you two all the time? You're never there in free periods, I hardly ever see you at dinner, and on weekends, you're practically unreachable! I know you fancy him, Gracie, but that's just plain suspicious behavior. If you're not planning on telling him, you're probably just leading him on—"

"Lily," I said suddenly, "I am not leading him on. Let's leave it at that."

Her eyes bugged a little. "Wait, what does that mean?"

"We are leaving it at that," I reminded her patiently and tossed my feet up. There was a squirm at the end of the couch I was seated on and the kitten purred discontentedly and hopped to the ground.

Lily pressed her lips together firmly, studying me, but the gaze was broken when she glanced down at the kitten that'd curled up at her feet. "He likes me better because he thinks you're mean," she told me in a childish tone.

I rolled my eyes. "I finally named him," I said fondly, gazing down at the little ginger furball.

"Really? What's his name, then?"

"Leo."

"Leo? Why Leo?"

"Well, Sirius's got this obsession with the sky and the stars, you know? And I figured I'd name him something that had to do with Sirius. Leo's a constellation, and it means lion, and I think that's incredibly fitting for this little guy. He's like a Gryffindor mascot! Plus, I can totally see him as a lion. Look at that fierce mane."

"Hm," Lily said vaguely and scooped Leo up in her hands. He purred sweetly, a harmless little thing. "Well, I think it suits him. He'll have to work on the fierce bit, though."

"Don't worry. Soon you'll be cowering at the sound of his growl. Right, Leo?"

The kitten made no response and Lily laughed and let him down back onto the floor. "You know, this kitten isn't helping your whole Sirius case, either."

"What's to help? I don't need help with any case, thank you. I'm perfectly innocent."

Lily sighed but could make no further argument as four familiar boys made their way downstairs from the dormitories. James was at her side in no time, clearly intruding upon her personal space, but the offense was noted by neither and James gave her a happy kiss on the cheek. He regarded me afterwards, nodding. "'Ello, Gracie. What are you two up to?"

"Discussing Gracie's suspicious activities," Lily pouted, glaring at me.

James scooted off of the divan Lily occupied and seated himself properly on an armchair, glancing between the two of us curiously. The other three appeared, consumed in a conversation of their own, and seated themselves before us without greeting.

"The Map took us two years to finally complete," Sirius was saying crossly, "and we will certainly not be leaving it where it is." This comment was aimed towards Peter, who shrunk back in self defense.

"I only think Filch has got it heavily protected is all," Peter attested. "Remember when you tried to raid his files before in fifth year? You got a week's worth of detention."

Lily's irritated look fell and we shared instead a look of confusion.

Remus sighed, running a hand through his hair absentmindedly. "I've never seen Filch do any magic, though, so how guarded could it really be? Do we even know he's a wizard?"

"I heard he was a Squib," said Sirius.

"And Sirius really only got detention because he went about his rummaging of the files very carelessly," Remus pointed out, to which Sirius nodded readily.

This time James piped up hopefully. "So you think we really can get it back?"

"Get what back?" Lily asked, and James looked at her as if he would answer, but the others continued their quickly escalating conversation as if they hadn't heard her.

"Most definitely," Remus said with a brisk but assured nod.

Sirius growled with scorn. "That lousy little caretaker."

"So when will we do it?"

"Tonight, possibly, though I reckon tomorrow would work better. We ought to really think it through first."

"Should all of us go? The cloak will only cover two of us at most."

"What are you looking for?" Lily asked, this time with more fire, and the boys all stopped and stared with wide eyes, as if they'd only just realized she and I were there. "Because it sounds as if you're planning on breaking school rules, and if I hear that any one of you has been caught out at night—you especially, James, you're Head Boy!—I will personally deduct House points, and we'll lose the House cup and I'll make sure everyone knows it was of your doing. All four of you."

James gulped. "Lily, it's not like we're up to no good, it's just that—"

"It's just that we would like to retrieve something that Filch snobbily stole from us," Sirius said bitterly.

"More like, Sirius and James were sneaking out last night and Filch caught them," Remus corrected without patience, "and he happened to confiscate one of our possessions."

"Not like he'll be able to read it," Sirius muttered, crossing his arms.

"You two were sneaking out last night? What on earth for?" Lily demanded.

"It was harmless, really," James said quickly. "We'd just forgotten to bring my cloak along, that was all—"

"So irresponsible! And you got caught, too! How much trouble did you two get in? What a terrible example to set as a dignified House leader! Terrible, James Potter, I cannot believe you…"

It didn't end there, but that was the end of what I clearly heard. Lily continued scolding James like a misbehaved puppy and I took advantage of the moment to lean over to Sirius and ask in a hushed tone, "What did Filch confiscate?"

"Our map," Sirius said, leaning into me as well. "The Marauder's Map, to be specific. Created by messers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs." He beamed with pride momentarily, then dimmed. "It's bloody brilliant, I wish I could show you. We've used it to sneak out onto the ground every full moon for years, among other things, of course. It's a map of Hogwarts. Shows the location of each and every person located in the castle."

"Every person?" I asked in disbelief.

"Every each and every one."

I was about to ask why he'd never showed it to me before, or in the very least mentioned it, but Peter let out a fearful yelp and my attention was redirected to him instead. Leo had crawled up into his lap and was purring prudently, oblivious to Peter's dismay. He squirmed and tried to pry the feline off of him, but Leo stuck to him like a Sticking Charm and licked his paw as a sign that he was perfectly content as he was.

"It's only a kitten, Wormtail," Sirius said with a laugh, visibly softening. "If you were in rat form, perhaps I could see reason for the intimidation, but you're the bigger one in this situation."

I rolled my eyes as Peter continued to shrink back for safety into the sofa, and I stood and scooped Leo into my hands. I kissed the top of his head fondly and dropped him into Sirius's lap instead, who promptly wrinkled his nose.

"It's a kitten, Gracie," he said with disdain.

"It's only a kitten, Padfoot," I mocked with a grin. "Which you very kindly picked out for me. I was just telling Lily earlier that I'd named him Leo."

"Leo?" He regarded the kitten on point, running a hand along his fur. "Like the constellation?"

"Precisely."

"Like a little Gryffindor mascot," Sirius commented, peering down at the creature curled up in his lap.

"Exactly! See, Lily, someone agrees!"

Lily had finished her scolding and resumed reading a book checked out from the library, and only scowled in visible response. "Well, you two must be soulmates then."

James let out a laugh, hopped back over to Lily's side and hugged her around the waist, looking desperate to win back over her approval, which he seemed to have lost. I glanced back at a smirking Sirius and smiled bashfully, and he reassured me with a wink.

The night continued on with playful banter between James and Lily, who had seemed to be getting on fine again in no time, and a loud bushel of noise erupted from our corner as we divulged into our books and called out random facts across to each other periodically, our attempt at a group study. Lily had evidently retired the idea that she would be getting anything productive done anyways and joined in, quick to swing the subjects from one end of the spectrum to another and laugh at the puzzled faces she produced. When James didn't know an answer, he went on vigorously and created an elaborate lie that might have convinced the average Joe Shmoe, of which Sirius readily went along with and supported with his own string of elaborate lies. Peter decided to ask the questions as he could hardly keep up or get out an audible response above James and Sirius, and Remus buried his nose in a book in a real attempt to study, though even he couldn't help but feed in his own retorts every once in a while. I kept asking Sirius about details I was wary about in the Ancient Goblin Wars, and he'd respond by telling a completely honest lie, sometimes joined by James, and once they even both cut into song about goblins that were mistaken as trolls and then drowned in a river of green.

And that was how January had ended in our seventh year at Hogwarts, a bustling mess of laughter and other unclassified things.

A/N: That was quite a long break for my liking. Sorry for being away for so long :( I don't know if I gave off the impression that this story was dwindling to an end last chapter, and if I did, I apologize! This story isn't ending after at least fifty chapters. I've planned it all out numerous times and I keep going back to elaborate on certain parts I want to give more credence, so I don't have an exact number down yet, but the tentative chapter count as of now is fifty.

Anyhow, on a random note, I was writing out my timeline for this story and oh my goodness gracious did James and Lily get married early! Lily's nineteen and James is only eighteen, for goodness sakes! Of course, I chose the date, but it's said that they were married somewhere between the fall of 1978 (they graduate in the summer of 1978, ahem) and the summer of 1979. I'm not telling you when I've chosen the date to be, teehee! But dear, dear, dear, that's close to only a year's span of time. Gee, you two! Oh well. Love 'em both. :)

And by the way, if any of you noticed, my picture has changed, and the man in the picture is in fact Ben Barnes and my chosen favorite version of a young Sirius. Isn't he adorable? Haha okay, that's it for now. Reviews would be greatly appreciated. Until next time, lovelies!