Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

A/N: Still don't quite know where this story is going….

"Tres, wait!" Liam called uselessly as the red mare shot off like a flash with Treasure clinging on joyfully. Liam felt a sick worry build up in the pit of his stomach - he highly doubted that before she had come to the farm she had even seen a horse, let along rode one. Well, that was being a bit unfair - they did have those mounted Muggle policemen in the city, but Muggle horses were nothing at all like magical ones. He nudged is own mount into action and went tearing after Treasure, berating himself for letting her ride the red and wishing that his own black stallion was anywhere near as fast as the mare. The black looked almost indistinguishable from a regular horse, except for the fact that his hooves were made of solid gold. Gold hooves didn't help your speed any, though.

Up ahead and fading into the distance, Treasure was screaming in pure euphoria, and just a tad of fear. She had never really ridden a horse before this past week, and the red was a wild thing. Treasure didn't care, though. The ground was soft; it must have rained some time during the day, so if she fell, it probably wouldn't hurt too much. She was only worried that the red would run away somewhere and hurt herself if Treasure fell, and so she hung on as tightly as she could, her hair flying out behind her. She held on low over the mare's neck, the coarse flame-red mane of her mount whipping her painfully in the face. Treasure felt tears building in her eyes and flying out behind her because of the speed and the wind against her face, and she was faced with the insane desire to stretch her arms out on either side of her and pretend she was flying.

Treasure was naturally impulsive, so she did just that and for about half a second felt as if she were flying on very turbulent air. If she had been an experience rider, perhaps she would have gripped harder with her knees or moved her body in time with the red. Treasure had only ridden a horse handful of times and mostly in the last seven days, and she had never ridden a horse like the red, so when she stretched her arms out she stayed mounted for about three seconds before toppling sideways and rolling onto soft grass.

Breathless, Treasure looked up at the sky, aware that she'd fallen rather roughly on her wand arm but was otherwise okay. She sighed and waited for the blood rushing throughout her body to slow, and heard Liam come speeding toward her, the heavy hooves of his stallion slowing to a stop as he leapt down next to her.

"Tres, are you okay?" he asked, kneeling to look into her eyes. He blinked in shock to see that she was laughing giddily up at the sky and wondered if she'd hit her head on the fall. She met his eyes and he saw that her tawny yellow ones were shining gleefully as she pulled leaves from her hair. The smiled faded quickly.

"Where's Red?" she asked, holding her left wrist to her chest painfully and looking around. Liam grabbed her around the waist and pulled her up to stand. He brushed leaves out of her hair and took her wrist gently, turning it over in his hands.

"You've got a fracture," he said. Treasure wasn't listening as she tried to squirm out of his grasp; she was looking for the red. Liam pulled his wand out and tapped her wrist, and Treasure barely registered that the pain was gone.

"I'm so sorry, Liam. She was going so fast I felt like I was flying, and I let go and just fell…"

"You let go? Riding the red, and you let go?"

"I know it was stupid of me but I wasn't thinking and now she's gone! Oh, God, you must hate me…I should probably go back to the city, I'm tearing your farm apart -"

"Treasure, calm down. Come here," Liam said, squinting at her in the twilight. He pulled her over to the stallion and helped her up, jumping up on behind her. "She knows the place, Tres. She's probably there already, waiting for us."

Treasure sighed in relief and sagged against Liam as they made their way - slowly - up to the hill. Sure enough, the red was there calmly grazing. She looked up at the three - Treasure, Liam, and the stallion - with clear, slightly mocking violet eyes. Treasure slid quickly off the stallion and ran over to the red, who danced around the girl happily. Yes, there were quite a few similarities between the red and Treasure. The two made a frighteningly impulsive pair, wild and impetuous. Liam patted his sturdy black stallion on the neck as he dismounted, not bothering to tether either animal because magic horses - unlike Muggle horses - are always curiously in tune with their riders and, unless seriously frightened, do not attempt to run away.

Liam spread the blanket slowly and grinned when Treasure, like a disheveled raven, flew over and tackled him happily, smelling of leaves and soft earth from her fall.

1.

Across the Atlantic sea, Sirius and James were sitting with the other two Gryffindor soon-to-be sixth years, Violet and Isabelle. Violet was violently in love with Sirius and had no qualms about letting him know it. She had her hand on his knee and had wiggled until his arm was around her coquettishly bared shoulders. Sirius was fully aware of the treason he was most likely committing - Violet and Treasure were, for reasons unknown to him, the bitterest of enemies, even more so than Treasure and Eva Grindoth of Slytherin, and the enmity between Violet and Treasure was widely known at Hogwarts. Sirius was simultaneously aware that he was quite possibly taking his life in his hands by endeavoring to court Violet. Thirdly, Sirius was aware that when school started again in less than a week, he would perhaps not make it to the Sorting alive and intact if Treasure found out about this date.

Sirius was no coward, and he wasn't about to be cowed by a witch who had nothing better to do over the summer than write to him about some freckled farm boy, so he threw caution and sanity to the wind and pulled Violet arduously closer to him. She wasn't a hag, after all; quite easy on the eyes even with the pounds of whatever junk girls put on their faces.

James looked amused at his friend's slight discomfort as the quadruplet sat at a table in an outlet of the Three Broomsticks in Diagon Alley. Sirius glanced uneasily at Violet, who smirked at him with painted blood red lips. Her hair had recently been charmed a shocking strawberry blond with emphasis on the strawberry; it even smelled of strawberry and each time Sirius caught a whiff of whatever unnatural scent Violet used on her hair, he thought of Treasure's wild dark mane. With an irritated groan, Sirius pushed Violet's hand off his knee and stood up.

"Let's look around, shall we?" he asked, pulling her up by her hand and shoving Treasure viciously out of his mind. Violet's eyes flashed and narrowed, but brightened when she saw that he was leading her to an antique jewelry shop, perhaps to buy her something.

"Later, Padfoot," James said, his voice quickly muffled by Isabelle's lips. Sirius shrugged darkly, apparently James was quite done mooning over Lily. If only Sirius himself could get a certain dark-haired wench out of his mind, perhaps then all would be well. He cast another glance at Violet, who was looking hopefully at him. She stopped walking and had such a forceful grip on his hand that he stopped as well. Alarmingly enough, she looked as if she was expecting a kiss. Sirius eyed her candied lips doubtfully, really not keen on having whatever vile substance girls painted their faces with on his own mouth.

"Violet, love," he said suavely, momentarily worried about the flash of triumph he saw in her eyes at the endearment. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket. "You've got a bit of ice cream right - there…" he said, surreptitiously holding the handkerchief to her lips. She pulled out a mirror as she wiped her lips, and the poison red coloring was suddenly, blessedly gone. To Sirius's horror, Violet was about to pull out another tube of the stuff and if she tried to kiss him after reapplying the gunk it would most certainly stick more than ever.

"Violet!" he said, grabbing her hand to still its ascent to her lips and covering her mouth with his. She uttered a surprised but pleased little squeak but kissed him back hungrily. He wouldn't have been surprised if their shared thought was: Take that, Treasure.

A mere quarter of an hour later, Sirius left the jeweler with his pockets a good deal lighter and a cooing Violet clutching eager at his hand. Sirius sighed and turned off his brain to her little exclamations of delight, thinking instead of how thrilled Treasure had been when he'd given her the ornate necklace which had been an heirloom in the Black family for centuries.

Bloody hell, he thought to himself.

"What are you thinking about, dearest?" Violet said, blinking at him in a fetching sort of way except for the fact that her eyelashes were clumped together in a very strange fringe that extended from her eyes. Sirius pondered his answer, knowing that Violet would be far from pleased if he admitted to thinking about Treasure.

"I just hope you like your ring, Violet," he said, which set her off again into fits of joy at the old gold ring holding a heavy ruby. "It's lovely!" she cried, and ran off to talk to Isabelle about it.

Sirius sighed and thought about returning to Hogwarts in three days time. It left him with mixed feelings. Of course, he would be glad to get back and stop being such a burden to the Potters. Even the workload was beginning to look weirdly seductive, as it might distract Violet and leave him with some free time. But he didn't want to face Treasure upon returning to Hogwarts. That was definitely something he could stand to do without.

1.

"I've got to go to school in three days," Treasure said sadly, looking up from Liam's shoulder; he was serving as an excellent pillow.

"I know," he said, lazily conjuring a blanket and pulling it over her. Treasure smiled and snuggled closer, and then sighing.

"You know, technically I've got a boyfriend. Or, at least I think I do. And technically, I shouldn't be doing this," she said, her stomach twisting with guilt and irritation. Liam rolled over onto his side and looked straight into her eyes.

"Doing what?"

"This!" Treasure said, gesturing furiously at the two of them laying sprawled on a hill, sharing a blanket and having just finished a romantic sunset-twilight picnic.

"I knew you had a boyfriend, Tres. Brent told me. But it hasn't stopped you," Liam said bluntly, and Treasure grimaced.

"I'm sorry," she said grudgingly, sitting up and pulling her knees to her chest. "I just wanted to forget about him. I'd written him so many letters asking to visit, and he never wrote back. It's like I didn't exist - I'm sorry, you probably don't want to hear this…"

"I won't judge you Tres. And I won't lie to you. I like you. And you're only sixteen, its not like you're married."

"Yes, but -"

"And he's in England, for another thing."

"I know that -"

"And what do you think he's been doing all summer that he hasn't had any time to even write to you?"

"Oh, Liam, I'm sure he's not like that!"

"Are you?"

Treasure bit her lip. The truth was that Sirius could have any girl he wanted. She thought of his careless dark hair and gray eyes and how he was so damn good-looking, and how nearly every girl in Hogwarts had had a crush on him at some time or another…And maybe Lily was right, and what did she, Treasure, and Sirius have in common besides a passion for getting to trouble and a mutual physical attraction? When she thought about it, she had spent far more of last year kissing Sirius than talking to him.

She sighed again. She felt relieved, and at the same time lonelier than ever.

"I still feel awful about it," she said. Liam laughed and Treasure smiled sheepishly.

"Cheer up, Tres. He doesn't even have to know. And besides, we haven't even done anything yet."

"Yet?" Treasure tried to ask, but Liam pulled her back down onto the grass and kissed her before she could get even that one word out. Moments later, when cogent thought returned to her, Treasure couldn't quite remember what they had been talking about in the first place.

"Now at least you have something to feel bad about," Liam said.