Chapter 3: No Age Limit in Love

Third Year

October 23, 1973 Tuesday, 8:53 PM

"He always says that he went to see his mother," said Sirius suspiciously.

"You know what I think?" asked Gwen confidingly then continued, "I think he's a werewolf."

Her statement was met with stunned silence then Sirius laughed.

"Don't be ridiculous. Just because he's acting suspicious doesn't mean that he's a werewolf."
"So he disappears once in a while, so what?"

"Once a month, in fact," countered Gwen.
"His boggart turned into a silvery orb; a full moon. That's when I first became suspicious."
"I checked the lunar chart yesterday," she said softly, "and he always leaves around full moon."

Gwen was met with stunned silence once again but there was now comprehension in his eyes.

"So what do we do?" asked Sirius with slight horror in his voice, "Merlin, a werewolf."

"Do?" she thought for a moment then said reasonably, "Well…he's stillRemus. We just discovered another, uh, part of him but it's always been a part of him so it doesn't exactly change him. He's still the same person. He's still our friend Remus."

"Of course," Sirius agreed, "I was just surprised. It's not everyday you discover that your friend is a werewolf, after all."

---

About an hour later, Sirius and Gwen joined the boys, James, Remus, and Peter, in the Gryffindor third year boys' dormitory.

The first time Gwen had gone into the Gryffindor common room she had caused quite a sensation, being a Slytherin in Gryffindor territory.
However, by now everyone was too accustomed to seeing her in their Common Room to even cast another glance at them as she entered.

"Stop lying, Remus, where do you really go?" said Sirius bluntly as soon as they had settled down.

So much being subtle, Gwen thought exasperatedly.

"What he means," Gwen said hastily as she sent Sirius a warning look, "is that it's safe to trust us with your secret."

"It's pretty obvious that you're not going to see your mother," said James, at Remus' startled look.

"Yeah, even I knew there was something suspicious about that," said Peter, making the others laughed.

"It's okay, Remus. Sirius and I already know," said Gwen comfortingly as Remus began to panic.

"You guys figured it out?"

"Not we. Gwen here figured it out," Sirius looked at Gwen with pride at her intellect, "and of course we tell each other everything, so yes, she told me."

"Oh. I suppose I should tell the other two."
"Well…it's-I'm—" He hesitated. "—a werewolf."

Sirius and Gwen nodded, unsurprised, while James looked at Remus with shock evident in his face and Peter fainted.

"So what are you going to do?" Remus asked fearfully as he eyed Peter.

Gwen smiled warmly at him. "We, that is, Sirius and I, decided we don't care."

"Me neither. It doesn't change anything," James quickly put in.

"Really?" asked Remus, getting slightly teary-eyed.

"What'd you think we'd do, abandon you?" Sirius said hastily, slightly embarrassed by his show of emotion.

"Well, yes," Remus admitted.

"I don't blame you," said Sirius distastefully, eyeing Peter.

"I reckon we should wake him up," Remus said heavily.

"Enervate."

Peter sat up, slightly dazed, then squeaked with fright as he spotted Remus and fell backwards.

"Don't be dense," said Sirius impatiently and smacked him across the head. "He's still Remus."

"What difference does it make that he's a werewolf? He's always been a kind person anyway; he's not going to suddenly start attacking you now, is he?" Gwen explained patiently.

"Anyway, Dumbledore wouldn't have accepted Remus into Hogwarts if he was dangerous," James pointed out.

"Oh, right," said Peter, looking slightly ashamed.
"Sorry," he added.

"It's alright. You actually took it a lot better than I expected," said Remus, relieved.

"So are we going to sit here feeling sorry for Remus," Sirius asked impatiently, "or are we actually going to do something to help him?"

"What can we do though?" James mused.

"You don't have to do anything," Remus protested. "Besides, you know werewolves are dangerous to humans."

"Tohumans…" Sirius and Gwen exclaimed at the same time.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Sirius asked Gwen with a wide grin.

"Yes," Gwen replied, "we should become—"

"Animagi," Sirius finished.

"You guys are brilliant!" James said excitedly while Peter asked, "What are Animagi?"

"I know," Sirius said cockily.

"Note to self, never compliment Sirius again," said James, pretending to make a mental note.

Gwen rolled her eyes at Sirius then explained, "Animagi are witches and wizards who can turn into animals at will."

"You really don't have to do that for me," Remus protested with embarrassment.

"Nonsense, what are friends for?" Gwen answered for them all.

Summer Fourth Year

August 22, 1974 Thursday, 8:45 AM

"Gwen! The team's playing at Michael's today and he said you can come along and play with us since Emmeline can't make it and we're missing a player," Sirius said excitedly.

Michael Yaxley, the Gryffindor quidditch team's Captain, was a fervent trainer who practiced incessantly, even over the summer. Since the Gryffindor team players were all good friends, they liked to play together over the summer.

"Sure," Gwen agreed happily and several minutes later, they were flooing to Michael's house with broomsticks in hand.

"Hey Sirius. Hey Gwen, glad you could make it," Michael greeted them and led them to the field where the rest of the team were waiting.

"Oi, Sirius! How could you? Bringing a spy among our midst!" Gideon Prewett exclaimed with mock anger.

"You're not going to rat us out to rest of the Slytherins, are you Gwen?" James said, feigning anxiety.

"You know me, loyalty to House before friends," Gwen grinned.

All five boys on the team (Gideon and Fabian Prewett, Michael, Sirius, and James) gasped dramatically.

"How could you? So you were lying when you said that you loved me?" Sirius asked, feigning hurt.

"That's enough boys, leave poor Gwen alone," Alice Cullen reprimanded with a laugh.

"Yeah, leave the innocent little Slytherin alone," Gwen put in.

Sirius snorted. "Innocent and Slytherin don't belong in the same sentence," he smirked while Gwen mocked a scowl at him.

---

They played for the next few hours with Gideon as Keeper, Sirius and Michael as Beaters on opposite teams, and Alice and James as Chasers on Michael's team while Gwen and Fabian were Chasers on Sirius' team. Any Chaser who caught the snitch earned thirty points for their team.

The score was a hundred twenty to a hundred forty when Michael's mother came out to the field.

"Michael, Melissa's here!" his mother called.

"Melissa? Which House is she from?" asked Alice.

"Well, she doesn't go to Hogwarts," said Michael.

"We should have known there was a reason you never went out on dates," said Fabian with a knowing smirk.

"So which school does she attend?" asked Gideon.

"Is she a French girl from Beauxbatons?" said Sirius slyly, "I've heard those French girls are stunners."
"Ow! I just said that that's what I heard," he protested as Gwen smacked his arm.

"Eh, actually…she's a Muggle," Michael said and grinned. "So itmight be a good idea for us to put our broomsticks away."

"You think?" Alice said sarcastically, as they rushed to hide their broomsticks and quidditch equipment then changed out of their robes.

"So what are we going to do now?" said Sirius.

"Why don't we play football since I've told her that I'm on the football team," said Michael, conjuring up a ball.

No one needed to ask what football was since Michael was as much of a football fanatic as he was a quidditch one.

They quickly assumed the roles resembling their quidditch roles with Gideon, who was Keeper, as goalie and Sirius and Michael, who were Beaters, as the defense.

A shot was made but Gideon, as usual, was able to block it.

"Gideon is definitely a superb Keeper, uh, goalie," Gwen commented admiringly to Melissa who had come out into the field and was standing by the side watching the practice.

"Gideon? Is he the red-head? He does seem very talented," Melissa agreed.

"So how did you and Michael meet?" Gwen asked curiously.
After all, it was rare that a pure-blood wizard still in school had a Muggle girlfriend.

"I suppose you can say that football brought us together." Melissa smiled. "I was working in my uncle's sports equipment store and Michael just happened to looking for some football equipment at the time."
"We got to talking and well," she shrugged, "we've been seeing each other for about a year now."

"That's nice," Gwen smiled at her and the two continued to talk for a while before Gwen ran into the field and began chasing after the ball.

There's nothing like football with the Gryffindors, Gwen thought amusedly as she watched Sirius run a victory lap around the field after scoring a goal.

Fourth Year

December 28, 1974 Saturday, 8:03 AM

It was Christmas break and Sirius and Gwen had come home for the holidays instead of staying at Hogwarts.

It was about eight o'clock in the morning and Gwen was in her room with Adrianne Belby, her friend from her Ancient Runes class, who had come over for the day.
Adrianne was also a fourth-year student but was in Ravenclaw, so they rarely saw each other except in class.

"Gwen—" Sirius started to say as he burst in through the deluxe bathroom connecting their two rooms and stopped as he saw Adrianne.

Both Sirius and Adrianne turned red as they became aware of the fact that Sirius had come in wearing only his boxers.

Sirius immediately walked out backwards and closed the door shut after him.

"You're drooling," Gwen said dryly, to Adrianne, barely managing to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

"Oh, right. Sorry, you don't like it when girls stare at your brother," Adrianne reminded herself.

To say that 'she didn't like it' was taking it lightly, Gwen thought grimly.
She tended to get a bit too jealous at times; she had to constantly remind herself that Sirius was supposed to be her brother in order to maintain control and keep calm.

And it didn't help that Sirius always treated her completely different from other girls.
Like today; he always walked around in only his boxers around her but the instant he had seen Adrianne, he had gone to dress properly.

Not that she disliked seeing him in his boxers; after all he did have a nice body. But Sirius couldn't have made it more clear that he didn't even think of Gwen as a girl.

It was times like these that Gwen almost regretted the day Sirius had been adopted. Almost.
Recently, Gwen had realized or rather, acknowledged that her love for Sirius was not as sisterly as she had believed. After all, was it natural for a sister to feel such jealousy when her supposed brother so much as smiled at another girl?

Yes, she had tried to tell herself. She was just afraid of losing her own time with Sirius.
Sirius spent loads of time with James and she didn't mind…

This was different, she protested. Friends were different from girlfriends.
But she didn't feel that way when Regulus was around girls…

Her relationship with Sirius was different from hers with Sirius. She and Sirius were like twins.
Aquila didn't mind when Lucius associated with other girls. In fact, she had been delighted when he had dated his first girlfriend.

And how did she explain her increasingly growing awareness of him? The way she wanted to hold his hand, to feel his lips on hers, wanted to feel his warmth…
It was just lust, Gwen had tried to reason. Just teenage hormones acting up.

So Gwen had dated and spent time with other guys.
Everything else, Gwen could reason with or explain away, but how could she reason with the fact that it was always Sirius she was imagining?

That it was Sirius who was holding her hand.
Sirius who was waiting for her outside her classrooms.
Sirius who kissed her goodnight by the entrance to her Common Room or by the girl's dormitories before curfew.

Then she knew.

She loved Sirius.

How was it possible?She was much too young to be in love; she wasn't even fifteen yet! she had reasoned, still in denial.

But even if she had been loath to accept it, Gwen knew. There was no age limit to love. No age was too young to love.

Gwen herself had loved Sirius since she was barely five years old.

[Flashback

Gwen had been playing outside with Narcissa and Aquila in the backyard at Grimmauld Place when Gwen's stuffed teddy bear, one of which both she and Narcissa had received as gifts from their grandmother, suddenly began to lift into the air as it was enchanted by an unseen person, and Gwen cried out in alarm.

It rose about fifty feet and one of the boys who had been playing quidditch slammed it with his Bludger bat, thinking it was a Bludger.

The tiny trio watched with horror as the teddy bear landed outside, in the Muggle part, outside of Grimmauld Place.
They were forbidden to go past the boundary, and Gwen would never get her teddy bear back now.

"Teddy!" Gwen began to wail and Narcissa and Aquila comforted her.

"Here Gwen, you can have mine," Narcissa offered Gwen her own toy, a stuffed bunny.

Gwen blinked in surprise.
These gifts were not ordinary stuffed dolls like the Muggle ones since their grandmother would never bestow Muggle objects upon them. The dolls, of course, were enchanted and were extremely rare and expensive so Narcissa's gift was no small sacrifice.

"It's okay Cissy," Gwen replied, handing the bunny back to her.

Sirius who had been flying with Lucius, Rabastan, and Magus on their mini broomsticks flew towards Gwen.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Gwen's teddy landed outside," Aquila explained and lowered her voice forebodingly, "in the Muggle side."

Sirius and the three other boys who had flown over looked horrified as well.

"Th-the Muggle side?" Magus asked fearfully.

"Yes," Gwen sniffed. "Poor Teddy, he's gonna be scared, all alone with the Muggles."

"I'll go and get him," Sirius said determinedly and all seven children gasped.

"It's okay Siri, you don't have to go," Gwen quickly said.

"Don't go! The big, bad Muggle is gonna get you," Narcissa said fearfully as the others nodded fervently.

Sirius gulped. "I'll be careful," he promised.

"I'll go with you!" Gwen quickly said.

"No!" Sirius and Narcissa said at the same time.

"I'll go by myself," Sirius said firmly.

"Are you sure?" Lucius said then added with a hint of fear, "I'll go with you if you want."

"It's okay, Luci, I'll go by myself," Sirius said valiantly, with a nod towards his best friend.

"Good luck," Rabastan called after him as he disappeared through the door.

Both Lucius and Gwen watched anxiously, hoping that they hadn't just sent their best friend to his death.

Sirius trembled as he walked out into the Muggle world for the first time in his life.

Ever since he could remember, he had heard numerous terrifying tales about the big bad Muggles.
According to these tales, Muggles were an extremely evil race that was rumoured to have been spawned by the devil.

So evil in fact that they had had to be punished by being stripped of their magic, which was the worst punishment imaginable; even worse than a lifetime in Azkaban.
The Muggles favourite pastime was Wizard hunting, especially little wizard boys such as himself, which was why they had to live in hiding from Muggles and never enter the Muggle world.

Sirius cautiously walked in the shadows, careful to stay out of view from the Muggles.

Sirius scanned the area for the teddy bear and gave a shudder as he finally spotted the stuffed toy by the bench. A Muggle woman sat on that bench and she held Teddy in her hands.

Sirius began to turn back. He wasn't being a coward; no one would blame him when they found out that Teddy was being held captive by a Muggle woman. It was just too dangerous.

But then he remembered Gwen's tear stained face and her sad violet eyes and stopped.

He would do it for Gwen.

Sirius quickly approached the Muggle woman, imagining Gwen's delighted face when he came back with Teddy.
He stood defiantly in front of the Muggle woman, refusing to show the fear in his face.

"Is this yours?" the woman asked, slightly amused and bewildered by the look of fear and defiance on his little face, and indicated towards Teddy.

"Ye-Ye," Sirius started to stammer then said clearly, "Yes."

The woman handed Sirius the toy and he quickly ran back into the shadows after thanking her, looking back to make sure she hadn't followed him.

"Siri! You did it!" Gwen shrieked with delight as she saw Sirius running towards them with Teddy in his arms.

The group cheered as Sirius handed Gwen the stuffed doll.

"Thanks, Siri," Gwen said as she looked at him with pure adoration shining from her face.

"You're welcome, Gwen," Sirius replied, looking at her with equal adoration.
Yes, it was definitely worth the danger to see her happy.

From that moment, the two had been inseparable or rather, more so than before.

[End of flashback

Gwen had known, when she had realized her love for Sirius, that it would be hard.
She knew it was foolish of her to feel this way, that she shouldn't be feeling this way.

She had known that she would never have him, could never be with him, and that it would be painful.
Gwenknew it was foolish of her but she had continued to love him anyway.

At times, she longed for him with an almost desperate need but because it was Sirius who she couldn't, no mustn't, love, she couldn't get any closer.
Sirius himself would never know that he was forever denying her.

Sometimes Gwen wanted to show him, to tell him, how she felt.
But she couldn't bring herself to add to his burden. Sirius had enough worries because of Mother and the Slytherins without her adding to it.
Sirius needed her to be his supportive sister and best friend and she couldn't shatter that for him.

She would manage, as long as she could occasionally be there for him, occasionally do something for him.
As long as she could be by his side, even if it was as his sister, she would be alright.

Really.