A/N: Since my beta for this story got involved only after the first several chapters were posted, I've ended up doing pretty extensive editing/rewriting. I wanted to update the posted version to reflect that. Hopefully this isn't super annoying. The previous chapter five ended up being split into two chapters due to some additions. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, I really appreciate all the encouragement!


"So Dumbledore came up with a method of communication just for The Order. You'll need to learn it. You're familiar with the Patronus Charm?"

"Only theoretically. I've never tried to cast it"

"Well it's quite a lot simpler to do a corporeal for these purposes, I'm sure you'll catch on."

"Your meant to think of a happy memory then you cast an animal cloudy thing?"

Marlene McKinnon would be the first to tell you that she wasn't the most eloquent person. But she never failed to make Sirius laugh. It seemed to Sirius that she was charming and funny because she wasn't particularly eloquent rather than in spite of the fact.

"Animal. Cloudy. Thing. Yes, I suppose you might call it that. And that's pretty much the crux of the patronus itself. Once you've mastered the patronus, you'll have to add in the relaying a message bit. The trickiest part of that is thinking exactly what you want the message to say and nothing else. You don't want your patronus to suddenly tell Dumbledore that you've left the kettle on."

"Unless I left the kettle on and Albus Dumbledore were the only person left on earth who could possibly turn the kettle off for me."

"...Yes. Right. Ok Marlene. You know the spell. Would you like to make a jab at just the patronus now?"

She nodded and tried to gather her concentration.

Sirius suspected that Marlene would get a hold on casting a corporeal patronus without much struggle. She was such a sunny little person. She must have had a lot of happy memories with all those siblings, none of whom were evil blood supremacists or even fans of the Chudley Cannons or anything as far as he knew.

While Sirius tried to think of what quidditch league the McKinnon's went for, Marlene brought the happiest memory she could think of to the forefront of her mind. She could see her three year old nephew Cassius throwing his chubby little arms around her and her his little voice telling her she was his FAVORITE. That kid had a lot of aunts and uncles and yet Marlene was his favorite. That was quite an honored distinction in her mind.

"Expecto Patronum!"

She had a lot of volume and enthusiasm but the wisp just sort of dripped out of the wand sadly instead of projecting itself forward into some sort of animal shape. Luckily, Sirius spotted her error and it was an easy one to fix.

"Don't fret over that. It's only an issue of your wand movements. Here let me show you."

She looked up at him. Her reverence for Sirius was as plain as day in her deep brown eyes. She couldn't hide anything with such transparently honest eyes. She'd make a terrible spy, but she was an unimpeachable ally.

Merlin's Beard... her eyes are beautiful. Am I staring? I should…stop that.

She obviously expected a demonstration but Sirius, contending that he was a terrible human being, or maybe a very efficient teacher of the patronus, stepped behind her and took her wand hand in his.

He felt a little ashamed of this excessively cheesy move, but forgave himself fairly easily, as he came from a family where an illicit affair with an only-vaguely-human-shaped dark wizard was considered a bragging right. He was doing his best.

He felt her flinch in surprise. She hadn't expected him to touch her. His breath on her neck gave her goosebumps. She could hear her heart's rapid beating in her ears as he whispered instructions.

"You had the spiral starting small and growing outwards. It's the other way for this one. Like this."

He guided her hand in the inward spiral wand movement slowly to demonstrate.

He stepped away, gesturing for her to try again. She looked like she was close to losing her balance. He found her whole posture amusing to watch. Baffling. But funny.

There were girls back at school who looked at him from behind their books and blushed when he smiled at them. That part wasn't particularly surprising. The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black was not known to produce trolls and hags. They were all quite striking, and though his mother had burnt him off of that dreadful old tapestry she couldn't change the fact that he bore a resemblance to her and his father as well. His parents were cousins and were fairly similar, both possessing the hallmarks traits of the Black family. Both beautiful and both horrid blood supremacist snakes.

So, Sirius was familiar enough with people being taken with his appearance. That sort of thing sort of blended into the background noise after a while.

This wasn't the same. No one before Marlene ever struck Sirius as being all that impressed with him.

He stood to the side as she practiced the spell over and over again. She was nearly there. She'd just need to focus her thoughts a little more and the animal cloudy thing would come. He could just enjoy watching her until then.

Marlene treated him like he was inherently good and brave. It made him really want to be those things in earnest. He didn't want to dash her hopes and lose her. Disappointing people came naturally to him, he thought. More so than courage or decency. His mother had certainly thought so.

The strong likelihood that he would at some point, somehow, ruin everything with Marlene made him feel sick. He wanted to put a wall up and fast. This was dangerous.

Luckily Marlene's fully corporeal patronus showed up to bring him out of his head. The bright silver-blue wisps were strong enough to come together in the form of a… bird? Some kind of duck?

Oh sweet Merlin it's a duckling. Of course it's a duckling.

Marlene McKinnon was without a doubt, a duckling sort of person.

"Awww…" escaped from his mouth before he could compose himself.

Sirius Black does not aww over things.

Except that he just had. He found this fact unacceptable and yet he was at a loss of how to get back on track.

"A little duck? My deepest affinity is for… a little duck?" She looked a little let down. Sirius was not going to let that stand.

"The patronus doesn't lie Marlene. Besides I like it. It'll be fun to get messages delivered via duckling. You're brilliant. Top Marks. 10 points to Hufflepuff."

"It's not exactly a duckling is it? It's more like a teenage duck?"

"Maybe, but I'm calling you a duckling from now on. You're Marlene the duckling and that's that."

Sirius felt he must have been temporarily possessed because he found himself touching her cheek. Had he given his hand permission to do that? He backed away as soon as he came to his senses. Marlene looked down at her shoes in embarrassment.

"Well since that went so easy for you I'm gonna have you try the message part. We have… not a lot else to do. I really expected it to take longer to get the corporeal down." He broke the silence that had gone on just a hair too long.

"Thanks for teaching me. You're… a good mentor? I should thank the Potters for having their baby last month. I'm so glad that I got assigned to you."

"Ha! I'm going to have to have you put that down in writing for Dumbledore to believe it. But thanks. I bet James will feel a lot better when I tell him that he hasn't left some poor kid floundering with no guidance."

"I hope I'll get to meet them. And their baby. How crazy is it for you that your closest friends have a baby?"

"It's weird. I feel… old. They've named me as his godfather. I feel so out of my depth. But that's what's happening and little Harry needs someone to remind him that his dad used to be fun."

"Well you're hardly old. And neither are they. I'm sure having a baby does cut back on their fun having abilities for now, but I'm also sure they're the same people they always were. Elaine, that's my oldest sister, has kids and she's still great. Now she's just great and also exhausted and covered in toddlers."

"Ha! What an image. I suppose you're right, of course. I'm sure you will meet them soon. You'll like them a lot. Almost everyone does."

Sirius was fairly sure that Marlene would notice that both of the Potters were infinitely more impressive than he was. James with his parents who had adored him and his childhood sweetheart that actually worked out...

Gross.

If he didn't love them so much he would have found them highly irritating.

"So… uh… about that message patronus thing...I'm sorry I got us all side tracked. I didn't mean to be awkward. It's sort of just…my gift. I guess."

Sirius thought she had quite a lot of gifts. Her ability send forth words like sparks from a periculum charm was very endearing though, so perhaps it counted as one.

"Yeah… it's the same as the Patronus charm, before your duckling forms, you have to extend your wand arm to the side while you say the extra bit 'Mercurius'. After you say the word you need to think first of where you want it to go and then what you want it to say. Don't think anything else or get distracted until the duck is on it's way or you'll end up telling Professor Sprout about the itch on your nose or something."

"I can do that. Probably. Can I practice it once I'm at home and you'll send one back if you get mine? That sounds like a better way to go about it than when you're right here."

Sirius chided himself for not thinking of that strategy. It made a lot of sense. Marlene never failed to impress him.

"You're brilliant Marlene. I'm only managing not to muck this whole thing up horribly because You. Are. Brilliant."

He was acting on pure instinct when he grabbed her by her skinny little shoulders and excitedly shook her, while drawing out the words "You are brilliant." to meet the tempo of his shakes. He still wasn't thinking when he proceeded to kiss the top of her head, letting her spiral curls tickle his nose. Her hair smelled like cocoa butter. He let himself forget for a second, that he'd wanted to… avoid things like that.

Sirius was a fairly physically demonstrative person in general. He was the hugger amongst his friends. James said it was because dogs were affectionate creatures. But however much he was like Padfoot, it didn't mean that he should smell her hair. He'd meant to back away from the feelings. Keep her at a distance and figure things out. He was really losing the plot here… At least she and her nice smelling hair would be back at Hogwarts soon. Though he'd really enjoyed the past month of seeing her every day, it looked like the distance would need to be forced upon him in order to get his head back screwed back on his shoulders.

I am a fucking idiot.

When he backed away he saw her face turn a very rosy shade of brown under her preponderance of freckles. She nervously avoided meeting his gaze.

"Ha.. um.. Thanks?" She finally managed to stutter.

"I think we can be done for today… um.. So… yeah I'll look forward to your little ducks tonight? Like 8 o' clock?"

"8 o' clock. Sounds good."