CHAPTER THREE IS HERE! Read and review, please and thanks! :D

Muggle London

January 23, 1980

The hands on the clock that hung over the welcome desk at Shear Style were shaped like a pair of scissors, and bent themselves into more and more impossible angles as the early shift drew to a close. Devin was up to her elbows in shampoo suds, but couldn't complain; Mrs. Roberts, a regular customer in her mid-sixties, was her last appointment of the day. Devin was out at one, since today she was working a shorter shift.

When she first started working mornings at the hair salon, she'd thought it would be relaxing—probably a slow stream of customers, if any, and there was free coffee in the waiting area. However, she'd underestimated just how many middle-aged women liked to get their hair done to start the day, and now that she was well into her shift, her hands were aching.

"Alright, take a seat on the end and I'll be right with you," she told Mrs. Roberts. Devin lay a towel over the woman's shoulders so her just-washed hair wouldn't soak her blouse, then took her sweet time drying her hands before she headed over to start blow-drying. When she walked over to her styling booth, Mrs. Roberts picked up their conversation right where she'd left off.

"And I told him, I said, if he's not moved out of the basement and into his own place by the end of this week, we'll do it for him!" She was saying. "And what day is it?!"

"Friday," said Devin, shaking her head disapprovingly as Mrs. Roberts told her about her son for the third time.

"And where is he?"

"Still sleeping in the basement? Unbelievable," Devin said sympathetically.

"Well, he won't be tonight! Ray is moving all his things out onto the curb as we speak. And honestly, I don't think I'm being unreasonable. Thirty-four and still making your mother cook for you? I thought I raised him better than that."

Devin looked at Mrs. Roberts in the mirror and nodded in agreement; she'd mastered the art of being a listening ear, and hearing her clients' stories was her favorite part of the job. A healthy dose of middle-aged grumbling made any blowout more entertaining, and just added to the countless work stories Devin could tell her friends later.

"I'm sure you raised him just fine, Lottie," Devin assured. "Some people just never learn!"

Mrs. Roberts huffed her agreement and settled against the salon chair as Devin started combing through the tangles. She'd just parted Mrs. Roberts' hair the way she liked it when the bell over the door chimed loudly. Devin was so used to the noise that neither she nor the other stylists looked up.

"Good morning, have you got an appointment today?" Devin heard Lisa, the receptionist, ask.

"No, thanks. I'm actually here to see Devin, is she in?"

Devin froze with one hand on the blow dryer; she knew that voice. She laughed dryly to herself and continued her work. So he'd gone two weeks without even dropping her a line, and now he was interested again? Typical. She rolled her eyes; if he really wanted to see her, he could walk through the clouds of hairspray and perfume himself.

Sirius did exactly that. He spotted Devin standing in her black work clothes and apron at the end of the row of chairs and he made his way over, carefully avoiding the trolleys of hair products until he reached her.

"Hi," he said simply. "So this is where you work?"

Devin glanced over at Sirius for only a second, and tried to ignore the way her heart leapt in her chest; he was just as handsome as she remembered, and dressed in grungy, slightly mismatched clothes. He had a look of fashionable disarray about him, and he wore it well.

Get a grip, she thought, reminding herself that this was the same bloke she'd spent all of New Year's Eve with, only for him to ignore her as soon as they went their separate ways. Granted, she hadn't made any effort to see him again either, but felt he was much more in the wrong.

"Hi yourself," Devin said coolly, raising her eyebrows at Sirius. "Long time, no see."

"Sorry about that," Sirius said with a laugh, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. "I've been busy." It was the understatement of the century, Sirius thought as he recalled the Order meetings, his and James's mission gone awry, and the general scramble of trying to get one's feet underneath them with the start of a new year. It almost felt wrong to be standing in a clean, Muggle hair salon when not long ago he'd battled Death Eaters and nearly lost a friend in the process.

"Three weeks of radio silence and all you've got to say is you were busy, huh? Haven't heard that one before," Devin said sarcastically as she picked up the blow dryer. Mrs. Roberts was watching the conversation unfold with wide eyes in the mirror and Devin smirked; it appeared she wasn't the only one who liked to hear other people's drama over a morning hairdo. Deciding to humor Sirius, she made a show of taking a deep breath before asking, "How have you been?"

"Alright, I—" But the rest of Sirius's reply was lost as Devin turned the blow dryer on high and started working on Mrs. Robinson's curls. He jumped nearly a foot—what the fuck was that thing?! He knew Muggles had all sorts of contraptions, but this was new and he tried to hide his alarm. He tried to speak over it, but Merlin, it was loud!

As he watched the way Devin moved the machine over her customer's hair, he realized it was slowly but surely drying it, and something she did with the brush made the woman in the chair's hair fall into curls. He watched in wonder; it was times like these that he was both impressed by and felt bad for Muggles—what he could do with a simple Drying Spell, they needed a whole machine and both hands for.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that," Devin said sweetly a moment later as she shut the dryer off to let a bit more of Mrs. Roberts' hair down.

"I said I've been alright," Sirius said. "I mean to stop by sooner, but my friends and I—"

Again, the dryer roared and drowned out Sirius's voice. He sighed and gave Devin a look and mouthed "really?" to which she shook her head and mouthed back "I can't hear you," while still grinning at Sirius's annoyed look.

"Fine," Sirius said loudly over the noise. "I can take a hint. Sorry to bother you."

Apparently Devin could in fact hear him over the blow dryer, because she immediately shut it off as Sirius started walking away. She watched him for a moment, tugging her bottom lip in her teeth. She was miffed he'd never called, but if he was truly as busy as he said…

"Hey," Devin said, and he turned around at the sound of his name and walked back over. Mrs. Roberts looked absolutely enthralled. "I'm off in twenty."

Sirius nodded, feeling relieved.

"I can wait outside," he offered, wrinkling his nose a bit. Ever since becoming an Animagus, his sense of smell had increased tenfold, and the thick air in the salon was starting to get to him.

"Sure," Devin nodded, sticking a bobby pin between her teeth. "I'm, uh…I'm glad you came by," she admitted.

"Just don't bring that thing with you," Sirius said with a wary glance at the hair dryer, which to him looked like a big noisy gun in her hand. Devin smirked, then pointed the dryer right at Sirius's face and pressed the on button.

He flinched as the warm air blew his hair back, and tried to brush off the discomfort with a laugh.

"Fuck off," he said. "I mean, thanks a lot," he amended, noticing Mrs. Roberts' look of shock at his foul language.

"I'll see you outside," Devin said.

"If I decide you're worth waiting for," Sirius retorted.

"You're one to talk about waiting. I've been wondering if I'd see you again for ages now!"

"Had you that interested, did I?" Sirius said with a wink. "Alright, alright!" He added quickly; Devin had raised the hair dryer threateningly and Sirius held up his hands in surrender.

"Twenty minutes. Don't make me regret this," Devin said, but the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth contradicted her warning.

"Copy that," Sirius said, then placed a hand on Mrs. Roberts' shoulder and gave her a charming grin in the mirror. "You look ravishing, love, by the way." With that, he left the salon, leaving Devin and her client ruffled in their own ways.

"My," Mrs. Roberts gushed, "Forget about me, dear, my hair will dry on its own. Best not keep a man like that waiting!" She watched Sirius leave with a youthful gleam in her eye that Devin hadn't seen in all the times she'd come in to get her hair done.

"He's nobody," Devin said, but she kept an eye on Sirius, watching through the salon window as he found a bench outside and sat down, rubbing his hands together in the cold air. "Besides, I can't leave you half-curled! Ray would come shut this shop right down if he thought his wife was getting anything but the best treatment!"

Mrs. Roberts hummed absentmindedly.

"Who's Ray?" she joked, still watching Sirius. Both she and Devin burst into laughter as Devin got back to work, going as fast as she could. Since when did twenty minutes feel like a god damn eternity?

"Let me see your hands," said Sirius when Devin finally emerged from the salon. He wanted to make sure she hadn't brought the blow dryer, and she rolled her eyes and laughed, taking her hands out of her pockets to prove there was nothing there.

"Jesus, you're like a cat near water with that thing," she joked as she stood in front of the bench where Sirius was sitting.

He shrugged and got to his feet.

"I'm more of a dog person," he said, laughing to himself at his little joke.

"Well come on then," Devin said, jerking her head to the left.

"What?"

"We're going on a date, aren't we?" she said, looking at him expectantly. "Or did you just stop by for your conscience's sake?"

"No, we can—yeah, a date," Sirius said. "Sure thing. Where to?"

"It's a surprise," said Devin with a playful look as she started down the street. "Don't wait all day, a girl's got shit to do and by that I don't mean you!"

"Bloody hell," Sirius laughed under his breath, then jogged to catch up. He supposed he deserved the attitude after the way he'd just disappeared after New Year's, and it was honestly keeping him on his toes.

After about ten minutes of brisk walking and small talk, Sirius and Devin reached a quaint tearoom that reminded Sirius of Madame Puddifoot's in Hogsmeade. He didn't take much of a liking to tea himself, but eager to get out of the cold and on Devin's good side, he held the door for her with a wide smile and ushered her in.

A stout man wearing an odd combination of corduroy pants, a button down shirt, and a linen apron came to take their orders; Sirius played it safe with some black tea while Devin went for an herbal type that held "notes of raspberry and hemp" according to the small menu.

Devin shrugged off her coat and let her hair out of the knitted hat she was wearing; she looked quite pretty in the café lighting and her cheeks were still flushed from the cold.

"I really am sorry I didn't come by sooner," Sirius said.

"What keeps you so busy that you couldn't?" Devin asked. She had dropped the slightly accusatory tone from earlier and sounded genuinely curious. "Are you working?"

"You could call it that," he replied. Working on defending the magical world, and yours too if this war gets any worse.

"What do you do?"

A less practiced liar might have stammered out some answer about being an accountant, or a cab driver, maybe, but Sirius was no amateur. He was a Marauder, and had fibbed his way out of much trickier questions than this.

"My friend James and I—you met him briefly, I think—"

"The one that kissed you, yeah?"

"That's him," Sirius chuckled.

"And you used to fuck your other friend."

"Yep."

"Is there anyone in your circle you don't get physical with?" Devin asked with an amused laugh.

"It's a burden, being this attractive," Sirius joked, and Devin sat back in her chair and rolled her eyes, gesturing for Sirius to continue. "Anyway, James and I, we're in sales. It's a small little company, nothing too exciting, just pays the bills. Definitely not as interesting as a hair salon."

"That's just a side gig," Devin explained. She paused to thank the waiter as he brought over their tea. "The CND's my real job."

"Tell me more about that," Sirius said. He was genuinely curious about what exactly the group did, and since New Year's, he'd noticed several flyers the couple times he'd strolled through Muggle London. He figured they'd always been there, but he was just now aware of them. Devin looked as though Christmas had come early.

"What do you want to know?"

"How'd you get involved?"

Devin took a sip of tea and gathered an answer in her head she'd rehearsed countless times.

"I've only been in about a year now; I heard about it last spring. The CND's been around for ages, but it died down until recently. I saw an advert in the paper for it…'NIX THE NUKES,' I think it said. Well, I agreed with that! My uncle was in the RAF in the war and remembers exactly where he was when he heard the Americans had dropped the first bomb on Japan—he said he couldn't move for five whole minutes when he saw the headlines, the pictures. Did you know now we've got weapons like that here, in Britain?"

"I didn't," said Sirius truthfully.

"And so few people seem to care, if they even know. These things are just sitting around, ready at a moment's notice, and the government's no doubt making more. What's more, other countries have got them too, so if a war breaks out…" she made a crude explosion noise, complete with hand gestures. "That scared me—still scares me—so I went to a meeting of the local branch the day after I saw that ad, that's where I met Etienne—"

"The one you used to fuck," Sirius cut in with a smirk.

"Oh, yeah, all the time. But the operative phrase there is 'used to.' Those days are over," she made a point to add. "Anyway, I met him and the rest of the chapter here, and the rest is history. Well, history in the making."

"So you protest?"

"Mhm. If it were up to me, every day I'd be blocking the roads where the missiles are transported, outing local government officials that support nuclear power…basically just causing a huge ruckus."

Sirius couldn't stop smiling.

"You're speaking my language, May," he said as he gulped down some of his tea.

"My parents aren't too happy with me," Devin continued. "They think it's a waste of time, and not a fight for a bunch of twenty-somethings to get involved in. We had a big row about it last week when I visited them. My dad even tried to take me out for ice cream after, that's what you know it's bad."

Sirius looked puzzled.

"Whenever he gets really angry and overreacts, he'll offer to get me a sundae after," Devin explained. "His way of apologizing, I guess, but it hasn't worked since I was seven. Dad thinks any problem can be solved with ice cream."

Sirius looked politely confused.

"Can't it?"

Devin huffed a laugh and glanced around the café with the air of someone surveying much more than just what was in front of her.

"If you want to try and pour chocolate sauce all over the mess that is our society, be my guest. Talk about a 'Bloody Sundae.'"

"Eh, couldn't hurt," Sirius shrugged. "We all scream for ice cream."

Devin chucked, which grew into a real laugh until she had to cover her mouth for fear of spitting tea all over the table.

"I'm sorry, I must sound like a real downer," she said as she wiped her mouth with a napkin, as if realizing the fact for herself just now.

"Just a bit." Sirius held his thumb and index finger a centimeter apart for emphasis. "A little less end of the world talk and a little more first date banter, maybe."

"I'm not always such a stick in the mud—honestly, I'm not!" Devin said; Sirius had looked playfully unconvinced. "It's just that I know how lovely the world can be, so seeing it as anything other than that makes me sad...and it makes me want to change it. Set the record straight. You must think I'm completely off it," Devin finished with a knowing look in her eyes.

"Quite the opposite."

Sirius was becoming more and more interested by the second. Especially endearing, he thought, were her Muggle sayings. To him, the phrase was a broomstick in the mud…close enough.

"Ice cream is a universal fix, though," Sirius said. He'd reckon a scoop of Peach Firecracker from Florean Fortescue's could solve at least half of his woes.

"Not when the problem is that you and your family have completely different set of fundamental beliefs," Devin said, and Sirius nearly dropped his teacup into his lap. He was shocked into silence for a moment; it was like she had taken words out of his mouth.

"Now you're really speaking my language," he mumbled.

"Not so fond of dear old mum and dad, eh?"

"My folks nearly threw me out when I got Sort—when I said I didn't plan on uni," Sirius quickly corrected himself. "And they did throw me out when I turned sixteen. Apparently in my family, growing out of racism and prejudice is a sin. The lot of 'em are a real piece of work, let me tell you."

"Cheers to that," Devin said sardonically, holding out her teacup. "It's just a shame that when we all get blown up in a nuclear holocaust, I won't be able to look them in the eye and say I told them so."

Sirius made a tsk noise. "What'd I just say?"

"Sorry, no apocalypse chatter, my mistake," Devin rolled her eyes and Sirius nodded with a blithe smile.

"I do have to break my own rule for a moment, though—if you think the 'demise of humanity' is that inevitable, your CND must not be fighting back hard enough."

"We're trying! We've got more people than ever before, but the real power is going to come from getting the public in on our cause. That's what the meetings are for; they're open to everyone."

Sirius could practically see a light flick on above Devin's head, almost as if someone had said lumos. She snapped her fingers and pointed at Sirius, her eyes wide and bright with inspiration.

"You should come!"

Sirius shrugged noncommittally; he'd suspected this was coming. "I'd love to, but—"

"Busy?"

The idea of going was tempting, Sirius couldn't deny it. But his mind jumped immediately to James and the rest of the Order. They needed him more than some Muggle group did, and he obviously cared much more about the Order's cause. As if that thought weren't enough to remind him of the life he actually led, he shifted in his seat and felt the end of his wand poke him in the ribs from inside his jacket.

"Yeah, really busy," Sirius replied. "I mean, maybe sometime, but I can't promise anything." I've got my own meetings to go to.

"Well, listen, I'm not much for grand gestures, but our next big meeting is Valentine's Day. Romantic, I know. Have you got any plans then?"

Sirius scoffed; he hadn't had Valentine's Day plans since he tried to set James and Lily up on a date to the Three Broomsticks in third year, a plan that ended with Lily dousing them both in butterbeer and running back to the castle.

"None that I'm aware of."

"Well, now you do! Come on, just one meeting," she urged, reaching one hand across the table to pat his. "They're only an hour long, and then we can all go get pissed and whine about love."

"Well, when you put it that way," Sirius laughed.

"So that's a yes?" Devin asked hopefully. Sirius paused a moment longer and then nodded; going to one meeting didn't mean he had to go to more, and if something came up with Order in the interim, he'd cancel. The Order would always come first, no matter how passionate Devin was, or how beautiful she looked when getting fired up about talking about the CND.

"You had me at 'get pissed,'" Sirius replied.

"Excellent. Hey—bring Remus! Maybe Etienne can teach him a bit of French," she said with a twinkle in her eye.

"Remus would definitely like that," Sirius agreed. The pair spent another half hour or so getting to know one another until their tea went cold—Sirius learned that Devin lived on the outskirts of Sydenham with two of her friends from the CND, and that although their birthdays were both in November, she'd recently turned 21 whereas he'd just hit 20. He made a mental note to tell James he was seeing an 'older woman,' something they always joked about since Lily was a couple months James's senior.

But you're not seeing her, a voice piped up in Sirius's head. And you shouldn't. He ignored it. Besides, there was nothing in the Statute of Secrecy that said he couldn't go out with a Muggle girl—so long as he kept the fact that he was a wizard a secret, there was no harm done. He'd dated Muggles before, too. Never seriously and never for very long, but he knew it was possible.

"Then it's a date," Devin said as she stood and threw her coat back on. Sirius got to his feet as well and helped her free her long hair from where it had gotten stuck in her collar. The static sent a bit of a shock from his finger to her cheek and they both jumped.

"There's a real spark between us," Sirius joked, and Devin snorted at his lame pun.

"I stand by what I said on New Year's," she laughed. "You're really fucking strange."

"Guilty as charged!" Sirius replied with a cheeky grin. "Can I walk you home?"

"I'm taking the tube," Devin said, then shot Sirius a quizzical look. "It'd be at least an hour walk…are you sure you're from around here?"

Sirius nodded, mentally kicking himself. He was used to everything being a matter of seconds away thanks to Apparition, and would have to learn more about Muggle transportation if he were to see Devin more often.

"Right, of course," he said. "Well, I'll see you at the meeting, then?"

"Or you could see me sooner," Devin said hopefully. "I do have a telephone at home, you know. It is 1980…unless you'd rather just interrupt Mrs. Roberts' appointments every Monday."

Right. Muggles. No owls.

"Erm, sure," Sirius said uncertainly, and Devin wrote down her number. "I'll call tomorrow."

"You'd better," Devin said, then stood on her tiptoes and kissed Sirius on the cheek, just like New Years Eve. As she left, she called back, "I'll be waiting by the phone!"

I would love to hear from you guys; what do you like / dislike about this story or characters? Any plot predictions? Let me know!

CHAPTER FOUR: CND is coming this weekend!

-C