Don't Let Your Guard Down
chapter 37

thanks to everyone who reviewed!! I really appreciate it! For all of those who are asking: I am only writing this story until graduation (meaning only a little over a week left!) This probably means only three or four chapters more. ONLY 224 DAYS TIL THE FIFTH MOVIE COMES OUT! and only...awhile til the seventh book comes out! haha

Disclaimer: PLEASE tell me you know that I'm not JK Rowling. how many of these disclaimers have you read by now?

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Sirius!" Lily cried out, running into the hospital and giving him a hug, the rest of their friends close behind. Lily hit him across the head. "You're an idiot!"

"Ow!" Sirius burst out. "In the hospital here! Bandage on head!"

"Oops…did that hurt?" Lily asked.

"Nope, 'ow' is code word for 'do it again,'" Sirius said, rolling his eyes.

"Hey man," James said, high fiving Sirius. "I'm going with Lily on this one. You're a moron."

"That's not what you said in this card," Sirius said, pointing to a card and chocolate frogs on his nightstand.

"I'm a little afraid to ask what you did say in the card," Remus said to James while giving Sirius a friendly pat.

"I'm with you on that one," Lily said with a laugh.

"So, you wanna play exploding snaps?" James asked.

"Calm down James. He just woke up. Let him breathe a little," Remus pointed out.

"But I miss having someone that I can actually beat," James said with a pout.

"That's not fair," Sirius said. "I was unconscious for awhile. I just woke up from a bad head injury."

"And what are your excuses for the past six years?" Remus asked with a smirk.

Sirius threw a pillow at Remus as he laughed along with the rest of the group. Kacie and Peter sat on the edge of Sirius's bed while Remus and James sat on the bed beside him. Sirius glanced around the room and then smiled weakly up at his friends. And then Sirius sighed, feeling that a big part of him was missing.

James and Lily exchanged glances, watching Sirius gaze around the room with an upset look on his face. "She's really busy," James said nervously.

Sirius gazed up at him. "What?"

"Gigi," James responded. "She's extremely busy."

"Oh right," Sirius said with a shrug. "Whatever. I don't care."

"But guess who visited you the other day," Peter said, trying to change the subject.

"The Queen of England? The Pope?" Sirius asked and then gasped. "God?"

"God??" everyone questioned.

"Oh right, that couldn't be it," Sirius said. "Because I'm God."

"Okay, who wants to let Sirius into the real world?" Kacie joked.

Sirius laughed as he turned back to Peter. "So who visited me?"

"Lucie."

"And her friend Hailey," Kacie added.

"Lucie visited me?" Sirius exclaimed, sitting up in the hospital bed. "Wow, who would have ever thought."

"I think it was Hailey who really wanted to visit you," Remus pointed out. "Apparently she's the only girl at Hogwarts who hasn't had sex with you."

"Hardy har har," Sirius said, sticking his tongue out.

"How mature," Remus said, rolling his eyes.

"I can be mature!" Sirius exclaimed and then muttered a simple, "Dumbbutt."

"How's that mature thing working out for you?" Lily said with a smirk. Sirius took one of his chocolate frogs and threw it at her.

"I'm in the hospital wing; you're supposed to be nice to me," Sirius pointed out.

"I don't think that's required," Lily said. "No where in the Hogwarts handbook does it say that we have to be nice to people in the hospital."

Sirius pouted. "But it's common courtesy!" The groups laughed together as they each took a little piece of the chocolate frog.

"So you've been unconscious for about a week now," Kacie said.

Sirius sat straight up. "Oh my god! I missed so many classes! And homework! And-" Sirius burst out laughing. "Yeah, I knew I couldn't get through that with a straight face."

Sirius glanced at the presents and cards on the table by his bed. He sighed and then looked at the rest of his friends and smiled a little. "So…besides Lucie, who else visited?"

His friends all exchanged quick glances and then looked at Sirius. "She's had a lot going on Sirius," Remus said nervously.

Sirius crossed his arms across her chest. "I don't know who you're talking about."

"She's had a lot of detentions," Lily pointed out. "I haven't even seen her for a few days."

"Wasn't she hanging out with you guys before I came into the common room?" Peter asked.

James looked at him. "You are a bloody moron."

"Look guys, I don't care, okay?" Sirius said, getting aggravated. "I wouldn't want her to visit me anyway."

"So how's that going?" Remus asked.

"How's what going?"

"This denial thing," Remus said.

Sirius pouted and plopped back against his pillows. "It sucks."

Sirius turned his head to look at all the flowers, candy, and cards from his friends wishing to see only one thing: a gift from Gigi. It didn't even have to be an extravagant gift; even a card or something small would be fine. She didn't even visit. Lucie visited but the girl he loved more than anything couldn't be bothered to just enter the room. What's worse is that his friends were making excuses for her when it was obvious the only reason she didn't want to visit was that she didn't want to.

For the fifth time in five days, Gigi stood outside the hospital wing door debating whether or not to go in. She overheard Lily talking to Kacie this morning about Sirius and how he's been awake for five days now and he still had two more days until he could get out.

Gigi started pacing back and forth, not daring to walk in front of the door in case Sirius or anyone else saw her. Gigi sighed and peaked her head out a little and gazed at Sirius in his hospital bed.

"That is a very nice skirt you're wearing, Madame Jenkel," Sirius said, flashing her a grin.

"You're not getting out of here til Sunday," Jenkel answered.

"Damnit!" Sirius swore under his breath. "But I've been such a good boy!"

"You took all my plastic gloves and made them into hand puppets," the nurse noted.

Sirius paused. "But that puppet show was entertaining for all!"

"Sit back Mr. Black," Madame Jenkel said, but there was a hint of a smile creeping up on her face.

"Can I ask for one small favor?"

Jenkel looked up from what she was doing and glanced his direction.

"Can I have a firewhiskey?"

"What?"

"I mean water," Sirius said quickly.

"I think I want you out of here more than you want out," the nurse claimed, handing Sirius a cup of water.

"You know you'll miss me when I'm gone," Sirius said with a smile.

Madame Jenkel didn't say anything back but Sirius smiled wider as he noticed a grin appear on her face. Sirius took a sip of water and leaned back against his pillows.

"Hey Gigi," Lily said, coming up the hospital wing stairs, making Gigi jump a mile.

"AGH!" Gigi cried out. "What the hell are you trying to do? Give me a heart attack?"

"Good thing we're standing in the hospital wing," Lily said with a smile. "So what are you doing?"

"Nothing," Gigi said really quickly.

Lily raised her eyebrows. "Why don't you just go in and see him?"

"I'm not here to see Sirius," Gigi argued.

"Bullshit."

"For your information, I'm here to see how Penelope is," Gigi said. "I heard she fell hard off her broom."

"What is Penelope's last name?" Lily asked with a smirk.

Gigi opened her mouth to answer but closed it after much hesitation. "That is so not the point!"

"What year is she in?" Lily added.

"I know it's between first and seventh year," Gigi muttered.

"What house is she in?" Lily continued.

"Okay! I get your point," Gigi cried out. Gigi took one more glance at the hospital wing door and then sighed. "I'm leaving now."

"Where are you going?" Lily called out after her.

"To buy Penelope a get-well-soon card!" Gigi shouted over her shoulder while darting down the stairs.

Lily sighed and shook her head disappointingly. With a glance at the empty stairs, she entered the hospital wing. "Hey Si."

"Thank god!" Sirius cried out. "Get me out of here!"

"Sit back Mr. Black!" the nurse cried out.

"I wrote my plans for an escape on this napkin," Sirius whispered to Lily, eyeing the nurse out of the corner of his eye. "Although we're gonna need a few gallons of blue paint and a flying unicorn."

Lily just stared at him.

"Yeah…time for a new plan," Sirius said, throwing the bunched up napkin in the wastebasket. "If I could get out of here now, I'd even do homework."

Lily gave him another look.

"Wait, no! I didn't say that! That doesn't count," Sirius said quickly.

Lily threw her head back and laughed. "So…not doing so well?"

"I need to get out and play a prank and play Quidditch and drink lots of firewhiskey-"

Madame Jenkel cleared her throat.

"I mean water!" Sirius exclaimed to her. Sirius grinned and then turned back to Lily. "So…how are you? And everyone else?"

Lily rolled her eyes at his lame attempt to find out how Gigi was doing. "She's wanted to visit, Sirius."

"Right," Sirius mumbled, obviously not believing Lily.

"She's just had a lot going on," Lily said with a shrug.

"That is total bullshit!" Sirius exclaimed. "If she supposedly wanted to visit me, she'd walk up those damn steps and come say hi. Stop making fucking excuses for her, okay??"

"She has walked up those stairs every day since you've been in here and stood outside the doorway," Lily said. "And every time, she has talked herself out of coming in here and walked back down those stairs."

Sirius sighed. "But why? Why doesn't she just come in?"

"Because of everything you've said to her," Lily said. "You broke up with her. She doesn't think you want her to come. And no matter how much we tell her that it's no big deal to just come say hi, she can never get enough courage to walk in here."

"Who said I wanted to her come?" Sirius asked grumpily.

Lily gave him a look.

"Whatever," Sirius muttered. "Only two more weeks of Hogwarts and then it won't matter. And I'm still stuck in the hospital for another two days…what a nice way to spend my last few weeks here."

Lily hesitated. "What if we got a flying horse instead?"

Sirius grinned and grabbed another napkin to write on.

"I'm free!!" Sirius exclaimed, dancing down the stairs.

"If you fall and end up back in the hospital, don't judge me when I laugh my head off," James called out after Sirius.

"I can stand! I can run! I'm free!" Sirius exclaimed. He paused at the bottom of the stairs. "So…what do you wanna do now that I have this newfound freedom?"

"We have class," Remus reminded.

Sirius pouted. "I'm going back."

"C'mon, it'll be fun," Lily urged. "McGonagall has missed you."

"Really?" Sirius asked with a grin.

"Well I think her exact words were 'class is a lot easier to get through without Mr. Black,'" Kacie noted. "But if you take the underlying message, she definitely missed you."

"You get 'I miss you' from 'it's a lot quieter and less disruptive without Sirius?'" Sirius questioned.

Kacie paused. "Yeah…maybe you should go back."

"It won't be that bad," Peter decided. "And it will definitely be a lot more fun with you there."

Sirius grinned. "Yep, because only I would take the whole class period to make an entire paper family out of parchment."

"And then proceed to put on a show with them as your actors," Remus said.

"And then come up with a complex plan to save them from McGonagall's office after she confiscates them," James added.

Sirius grinned. "Those were the good ol' days."

"That was just last month," Peter pointed out.

Sirius linked arms with James and Kacie. "Alright, let's go to Advanced Potions."

"You mean Advanced Transfiguration," Remus said.

Sirius shrugged. "It's all the same to me."

"Welcome back Mr. Black," Professor McGonagall said as the group walked through the door.

Sirius grinned and looked at his friends. "She did miss me."

"Don't push it," Professor McGonagall, not looking up from the parchment she was reading.

"Hi Sirius," Ronnie said, walking in behind the group.

The entire group turned around and the girls tried hard to disguise their irritation. Sirius waved and walked over to her. "Hey Ronnie. What's going on?"

"Oh you know," she said with a shrug. "Homework, dating, not falling out of trees."

Sirius threw his head back and laughed. "Well then you're definitely missing out."

Lily growled under her breath as she took a seat next to Kacie. "He's flirting," Lily hissed, hitting Kacie on the shoulder.

"Um…ow," Kacie said, rubbing her shoulder. "And yes, I can see he's flirting. All that medicine must have messed up his brain."

"No Kacie," Remus butt in. "Sirius has always been this way."

"Messed up in the head?" Kacie teased.

James and Peter laughed as they sat behind the girls and Remus propped himself up on the table. "He's just having a nice conversation. Give him a break; he's been waiting to get out of the hospital and mingle," James claimed.

"Well does he have to mingle with that?" Lily asked in disgust.

"That has a name," Peter said. "A sweet gorgeous na-"

"Oh shut up," Lily muttered. "You couldn't get Ronnie even if you paid her."

"Lily, that's awful!" Remus cried out.

"No, it's true," Peter said and then sighed. "I've tried."

"Do you think-" but before Kacie could finish her sentence, in walked Gigi.

Gigi grinned and waved at her friends and walked over, obviously not noticing Sirius in the corner talking to Ronnie. They all bit their lips, waiting for Gigi to become aware of Sirius flirting with a gorgeous girl, one that she was never fond of.

"Okay, so when you are practically running to make it to class on time and you tell a girl to get out of the way, how would you interpret that?" Gigi asked, sighing as she put her bag down and plopped into a seat beside Lily.

"That I should get out of the way?" James answered nervously.

"Exactly!" Gigi cried out, throwing her hands in the air. "Tell that to the girl who I pushed down the stairs."

"Gi!" Lily exclaimed.

"Oh I'm just kidding," Gigi said and then shrugged. "I just pushed her into a wall."

"The younger girls must be so happy that you will be gone in two weeks," Kacie said.

"Yeah, well they-" Gigi started but then froze as she heard a familiar giggly laugh come from the corner of the room. She slowly turned her head to see Sirius throw his head back and laugh at Ronnie's joke. She clenched her fists together a little and then slowly let them go. Gigi took a deep breath and then turned to her friends, acting as if nothing was wrong. "So…what's for dinner?"

The others exchanged worried glances. "Um…it's eleven in the morning."

"Oh," Gigi said and then shrugged it off. "I meant lunch. What's for lunch?"

"How should we know?" Remus asked with a shrug. "Do we ever know the meals before they're placed in front of us?"

Gigi paused. "Good point," she murmured. "I...uh…guess I'm just hungry."

They all exchanged another round of worried glances.

Sirius ignored Ronnie's voice as he turned and saw Gigi turn to talk to Remus, her hair falling across her face and onto her shoulder. Sirius kept glancing at her from the corner of his eye while Ronnie started rambling about make-up…or maybe she was talking about clothes…or maybe, okay so he had no idea what she was talking about. Sirius turned back and tried paying attention to Ronnie but he couldn't help but glance over at Gigi conversing with his friends.

Both Gigi and Sirius glimpsed up and caught each other's eye. After a moment, Gigi turned her head away and attempted to listen to Lily talk about something before Professor McGonagall started class. Sirius gazed over at the empty chair beside James, right behind Gigi, originally where he was planning on sitting. He sighed and took a seat next to Ronnie.

Gigi paced back and forth while Lily and Kacie stayed calm, lying down on Kacie's bed.

"How could you not tell me?" Gigi exclaimed, stopping long enough to wave a finger at her two best friends.

"We didn't think it would matter," Kacie explained.

"How could it not matter??" Gigi cried out as she started to pace faster.

"You haven't visited him once since he's been in the hospital and you've hardly talked about him since the break up," Lily pointed out, trying not to look as annoyed as she was with Gigi's continual complaints with Sirius' life. "You've kinda made it apparent that you don't want to hear about him and you basically don't want anything to do with him."

"Yeah and I don't want him walking around Hogwarts!" Gigi claimed.

"You just hoped he'd stay in the hospital wing til graduation?" Lily asked.

"No," Gigi said. "I hoped he'd stay in the hospital wing through graduation."

"He had to get out at some point," Kacie said, popping a few M&M's into her mouth.

"But why now?" Gigi whined, plopping face up onto her bed and sighing up at the ceiling. "When things were getting so great!"

"What was getting so great?"

"I finally matched my outfit to my nail polish," Gigi pointed out.

"Wow," Lily said sarcastically. "Why go on living now that you have reached your top goal?"

"Okay, stop mocking me while I'm feeling sorry for myself," Gigi moaned, hitting her head against her pillow a few times.

Lily sat up on the bed and faced Gigi and tried sympathizing. "Okay, here's what we're gonna do."

"Mope and eat lots of chocolate?" Gigi asked.

"Hmm, good option," Lily said, "but no."

"Strip club!" Kacie cried out.

"We're not the Marauders," Lily said in disgust and then turned back to Gigi. "We're gonna forgot about Sirius, grab some snacks from the kitchen, get out a few stupid board games, and reminisce about the times when we played in sandboxes and on the swings."

"When we could get rid of boys by telling them we had cooties," Gigi said with a laugh.

"Or just hit them with a shovel and pail," Kacie joked.

Gigi sat up and looked at her best friends. "Alright fine, let's get out Twister."

Lily grinned from ear to ear. "That's the spirit!"

"But while you're down at the kitchens, can you pick up some form of alcohol?" Gigi asked.

Lily smiled. "I'll see what I can do."

"Leo Gilbert," Kacie muttered.

Gigi and Lily exchanged glances and then looked over at him. "Huh?"

"He was the boy I threw a shovel at back when I was five," Kacie said.

"You sure he didn't hit you with a shovel?" Gigi asked. "Because that would explain a lot."

Kacie threw a pillow at her and laughed along with Lily and Gigi as the pillow hit Gigi square in the face.

"Why couldn't you warn me??" Sirius cried out.

"Warn you that Gigi would be in the same Transfiguration class that she has always been in with you?" James asked.

Sirius waved his pointer finger violently at James. "Are you mocking me?"

"I'd say yes but I'm afraid that you'll change the finger that you're pointing at me," James said with a laugh.

"I saw her and I wanted to throw a desk at her," Sirius sighed, "at the same time that I wanted to go up to her and give her a hug."

"A hug?" Remus asked with raised eyebrows.

"Well what I really wanted to do would not have been appropriate in the classroom," Sirius said.

"Since when has that stopped you?" Peter asked.

"I just…I just…" Sirius trailed off and sighed. "I just wish this wasn't so hard."

"Yeah I know what you mean," James said. "It's very hard to pick up a heavy desk and throw it at someone."

"You're not getting my point!" Sirius cried out.

"Maybe a chair," James said. "Try throwing a chair instead."

"Is there a way to shut that thing off?" Sirius asked Remus, pointing at James.

"I've tried with very little success," Remus admitted with a laugh. "So if you ever come up with something, please inform me."

"You know, I was going to try to help you, Sirius, but forget that," James pouted.

The others stared at him waiting for more but James sat there in silence, shrugging his shoulders.

"Omigod…we shut him up!" Remus said enthusiastically.

James scowled.

"Okay all this talk…well, all Remus' talk…is nice, but can we get back to my problem?" Sirius whined.

"You don't have a problem," James pointed out. "Gigi has always been there, remember? It was you who was gone for a week."

"Okay, I was in the hospital wing. Aren't you supposed to be more sympathetic?" Sirius whimpered.

"Sirius, it's hard to be sympathetic when you fell out of a tree," Remus pointed out with a snicker.

Sirius pouted and flopped on to his bed with a sigh. "What am I going to do?"

"Padfoot, I don't understand the problem," James sighed. "You were broken up with Gigi before you fell out of the tree. Nothing has changed."

"I know nothing has changed," Sirius murmured. "I guess I just…"

"Miss her?" Remus suggested.

Sirius' head jerked up in surprise. "No," he argued, not too sure if that were true or not. "I just hadn't seen her in a week so it was a little surprising."

"Funny, you thought the same thing about the cereal this morning," Remus snickered.

"Yeah and you kissed the bowl," James snickered.

Sirius glared at him. "Don't get any ideas," he muttered. "Nothing has changed between me and Gigi. She still doesn't trust me."

"Sirius, maybe you're being a little too hard on yourself," James suggested.

"You don't think I deserve someone who trusts me??" Sirius questioned in frustration.

"Like who, Ronnie?" Remus laughed.

Sirius glared at him.

Remus shrugged. "You were happy with Gigi. Isn't that enough for now?"

Sirius bit his lip nervously, staring down at his hands for an answer. He let out a slow sigh and muttered, "I don't know."

"The point is," James said, "is that I think she was more surprised to see you. Not the other way around."

"Was that our point?" Sirius asked. "I thought our point was…" Sirius turned to Remus. "What was our point?"

"When we're talking about girls, we never have a point," Remus concluded.

Sirius sighed and stared up at the ceiling. "Let's forget about girls and move on to a different topic of conversation."

It was silent for a few moments until Peter spoke up, "So how hot was Ronnie today?"

Sirius groaned and hit his head against his pillow a few times as James and Remus snickered at Peter's comment.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

hmm, so Gigi didn't visit Sirius in the hospital. is she going to regret it? is he going to be really upset that she didn't visit him? are they ever going to talk to each other again?

Review to find out!