"So, you don't recall what her reaction to the pumpkin was?"

"I don't even remember if I saw her come out, Potter! I'm not the one who's obsessed with her," said Marlene, rolling her eyes. "Now piss off, I need to do this essay that's due tomorrow because you've given me no time to do it!"

"Dorcas, did you see Evans this morning?" James asked desperately, looking at Dorcas. It was the evening of Hallowe'en, and James was asking around the common room, trying to find out what Lily had thought about his special pumpkin.

"I'm the same as Marlene, sorry, Potter," Dorcas said, shrugging. "Sorry."

"Ugh," said James, "I thought girls noticed everything."

"Clearly not, because otherwise, Evans would notice you," said Marlene.

James just rolled his eyes, turned around, and walked away, and Sirius, Peter, and I walked away from them. "God, Wormtail, what do you see in her?"

Peter blushed so hard that he was almost completely red. "I thought you liked her. Like, as a friend."

"It's a love-hate relationship," said James. "Even though we're on the same team in Quidditch, we're quite competitive, and we argue a lot. But we have each other's backs, though."

He didn't dwell on it for long, though, because he soon saw Mary and approached her about Lily and the pumpkin.

"Oh, yeah, I did see her, actually!" said Mary, happy to provide gossip. "She stays in the same dormitory as the girls in my year, since there are no other Gryffindor girls in her year that are... still alive. Anyway, all of us walked down to the common room together, and the pumpkin started singing to her. She just rolled her eyes and walked past it. But I swear to god, I saw her blush."

That lit James's face up. "She blushed!?"

"Yeah, but she still ignored it," Mary said quickly. "I don't want you to get your hopes up and be heartbroken, she could have just been really flattered... but yeah, I'm pretty sure she was blushing."

"Because she loves me," James said dreamily. "Thanks, Mary."

Just a few days after Hallowe'en was Sirius's seventeenth birthday. I stayed up all night the night before, watching the clock until it was midnight. As soon as both the hour and the minute hand were facing straight up, I got up out of my bed and walked over to Sirius's.

I pulled his curtains of the four-poster back quietly, climbed into the bottom of his bed just below his feet, then drew the curtains.

"Padfoot, are you really so short that I can sit at the foot of this bed and not crush your legs?" I said, as loud as I wanted to, because the curtains blocked out any noise.

"Ugh, what?" Sirius mumbled groggily. "Who's there...?"

"Your boyfriend," I said.

"What...?" Sirius said, and I felt the duvet push back towards me as he sat up. "Ugh, where's my wand... Lumos."

Sirius found his wand, then lit it so he could see me.

"What are you doing? What time is it?"

"It's a minute or so past midnight. And I'm here to wish you a happy birthday, you fully grown of-age wizard," I said.

"It's my birthday tomorrow," Sirius mumbled.

"No, Padfoot, the date changes at midnight," I said, leaning closer to him and kissing him lightly. "It's your birthday now."

"Aw, Moony... thank you," said Sirius, smiling as he finally woke up and realised what was going on.

"I'll give you your physical gift at breakfast," I said, crawling over to him and sitting next to him, both of us leaning against the head of his bed. "But for now..."

I leant toward Sirius and kissed him again. I felt him smile against my lips as he wrapped his arms around me and kissed me back.

"All I want for my birthday right now is you, Moony," said Sirius, and that statement caused me to blush harder than I ever had in my whole life. It just made me feel so loved. And feeling loved by anyone, but especially Sirius, who I'd loved from afar for years, felt so good after hating myself to the point where I believed I couldn't be loved by anyone.

If he loves you so much, then why did he try to use you to kill Snape, came a voice from the back of my head.

He made a mistake. And it's his birthday today. You can't think ill of someone on their birthday, I thought, arguing with the other voice.

"Are you blushing?" Sirius asked, lifting his wand to the top of the four-poster, then letting it levitate above us so the entire four-poster was lit up on the inside. Sirius laughed when he saw how pink my face was. "You are!"

"Nah, just... a little cold? You know how your face goes pink with the cold..." I said, kissing him again to distract him from my blushing.

Sirius gripped my back with one hand and pushed his duvet down with the other. "Come on, let's warm up."

He just caused me to blush even more, and I lied down beside him and he pulled the duvet back up over the both of us.

"I love you," I said as he continued to snog me, and I ran my hands through his long hair, matted from his sleep.

Sirius didn't respond, because his tongue was too busy to talk. He moved closer to me, and his pyjama trousers pressed against mine, and then... oh god.

Just one accidental touch from him and the wrong area, and I was quickly hardening. Shit.

Sirius must have felt it against his leg because his eyes opened and moved to mine. Embarrassed, I pulled away from him and reached up for his wand, turning the light off so he couldn't see me blushing again.

Sirius just squeezed my hand, though, and said, "I love you too, Moony."

It was clear at that moment that we both wanted the same thing, but were both too nervous and awkward to properly talk about it like a normal couple.

So we just slept. In the same bed.

It was amazing.

When the alarm went off at seven and I woke up with my face full of long dark hair, I jumped out of my skin until I smelt and saw that it was Sirius.

"I gotta go, I'll see you in a minute, birthday boy," I said to Sirius, who hadn't even woken up, and pulled back the curtains of his four-poster, praying Peter wasn't up yet.

Just as I started walking away from Sirius's bed, James pulled back the curtains of his own four-poster, then looked at me, then at where I was coming from, then back to me. He was still for a few seconds of awkward silence before he decided to just smile at me and then walk towards Sirius's bed himself.

"Get up, birthday boy," he said, pulling back the curtains of Sirius's four-poster. "You don't want to miss breakfast on your own birthday."

"Don't boss me around, I'm an adult," Sirius said groggily as James pulled down Sirius's duvet. I was instantly reminded of Sirius pulling the duvet down just seven hours ago so I could lie under them with him.

"Happy birthday Padfoot," said Peter as he came out of his bed and walked over to the rest of us.

"C'mon, Pads, breakfast time," said James.

"Ugh... I'm tired, Prongs," Sirius mumbled, rubbing his eyes, "give me a minute to get up."

"Why are you so tired? Did you..." James's eyes slid from Sirius to me, then back to Sirius... "stay up late?"

"Piss off, Prongs," Sirius said, rolling his eyes and finally getting up. Peter grabbed a gift from under his bed and threw it at Sirius as he got up.

"Happy birthday," said Peter, nodding to the gift as a signal for Sirius to open it.

"Thank you," said Sirius, unwrapping it. Once he'd unwrapped it, a smile split across his face. "How did you get your hands on this, Wormtail?"

"I got Marlene to get it, paid her an extra five galleons when I paid her back," said Peter.

"What is it?" James asked.

"Bottle of Firewhiskey," said Sirius, holding up the bottle.

"You got him alcohol?" I said, raising my eyebrows at Peter.

"He's an adult now, it's legal," said Peter, but then he turned to Sirius.

"Please be responsible, though..." said James nervously, "don't make Peter regret getting this for you."

"Alright, Mum," said Sirius, opening the bottle and taking a sip. "Ahhhh, it burns..."

"Yeah, it's Firewhiskey, what do you expect?" said Peter.

"Padfoot, I'm already starting to think this was a bad idea for Peter to get this for you..." said James.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I'll be careful!"

"Well, here's my gift for you," said James, rummaging through his trunk and pulling out a present.

"Thank you, Prongs," said Sirius, opening the gift. It was something that I never would have been able to afford. A small television. "Oh my god! This is a muggle telly! Thank you so much! How do we make it work now?"

It was like someone had punched me in the stomach. James and Peter had both gotten cool, expensive gifts for Sirius, and I'd bought him a box of chocolates from Honeydukes because that was all I could afford. It was his bloody seventeenth birthday and that's all I could get him? I was supposed to be the one who loved him.

I had to give it to him, though, however embarrassing it was. Otherwise, they'd think I'd gotten him nothing and that would make me an even worse gift. I grabbed the gift from my bag and handed it to Sirius, saying, "Sorry it's not much."

Sirius opened it, and smiled and thanked me, of course, but I was sure that he was just a really good actor.

At breakfast, Sirius received a package and a short note from James's parents, and a letter from his cousin Andromeda. He read the note from James's parents, which just wished him a happy birthday, and then he opened the gift. It was a watch.

But not just a watch, it was literally gold, with the word 'Sirius' engraved behind the face of the watch.

"It's tradition for a wizard to get a watch from his parents on his seventeenth birthday," said Sirius. "So... so your parents gave me a... that's so sweet."

Smiling widely, he opened the letter from Andromeda, and since we were all nosy, James, Peter, and I all read it over his shoulder.

Dear Sirius,

Happy seventeenth birthday! I can't believe you're an adult. It seems like it was only yesterday that you were turning ten years old, so excited about the milestone of becoming double digits. But here you are, no longer an underage wizard.

I've got a gift for you, but it was a bit too heavy for the owl to carry, so I was hoping to give it to you during the Christmas Break. Do you want to come to visit Ted, Dora, and I at our place on Sunday, December 19? I'll give your gift to you then, and we can catch up. Feel free to bring your friends, I know it's been a minute since we've seen them, but they are all lovely and it would be great to see them as well!

Love,

Andie xx

"OK, you guys want to visit Andie, Ted, and Dora?" said Sirius, and we all nodded in agreeance.