Sirius

"Prongs, I need an exit strategy."

James looked up from his moo goo gai pan and promptly fissured a chop stick. "You're breaking up with Laura already? That's a new record, even for you!"

"Not yet," said Sirius. "But it's coming." He had been working on a mental list of the pros and cons of dating a muggle, and the cons were winning by a mile. There was no way around it.

Lily, who proudly considered herself a hopeless romantic, glared at him. "Right, Sirius. What's the plan to ditch her, then? You've been dating not even a month!"

"That's just it. I can't think of anything that would even sound plausible." Especially after the previous night, when he had stayed with her overnight for the first time. He couldn't escape the memory of Laura lying under him, offering an infinite variety of kisses, ranging from sweet and chaste, to brutally punishing. How her legs had slid around his waist, conveniently positioning him at just the perfect spot for the exquisite sensation of slick wetness. He had become so excited that he slid into her in no time, making both of them draw a breath at their respective sensations. Then the moment was lost, and he focused on Lily. She was frowning at him.

"So don't do it, then!"

"Lily, you weren't at that last meeting. Things are growing worse, and exponentially. What if she somehow wound up in that lot's crosshairs? They'd think nothing of torturing, or even killing her. Especially a muggle who was dating a pureblood."

"What about yourself?" Lily asked. "I should think Voldemort's band of wankers would be much more interested in torturing or killing the pureblood traitor, rather than some muggle."

Sirius shrugged that off. "They'd probably like the pair. I'm not concerned for me. But there's too much muggle-baiting been going on, and it's increasing. I don't want to give anyone an excuse to hurt her."

A waitress appeared, plopping down three fortune cookies and a bill before disappearing again.

"Well, that's promising, anyway." Lily's look was more approving now.

"What's that?" he asked.

"This. You're concerned with her and not yourself, for once."

Sirius glared at her, but he couldn't exactly deny it. "Thanks, Lils."

"Look, Padfoot, just keep her under the radar for the time being," James said. "Nobody needs to know about your personal life anyway."

"But what happens when things get worse, as you know they will if we can't kill Voldemort anytime soon. He'll just grow bolder, and …" He had a terrifying image of Laura, screaming as some faceless Death Eater inflicted a cruciatus curse on her.

"Sirius, we can't allow them to run our lives."

"Right," Sirius said, with a raised eyebrow. "What about your plan to expand the family, just after you got married?"

"What makes you think we haven't been trying?" James retorted, and Lily rolled her eyes.

"Excuse me. That's OUR business, James!"

Sirius thought about Laura again, and the contraceptive charm he had whispered once they were under the sheets together, naked and covering each other in kisses. She had found the words very sensual, though she didn't understand the Latin roots, nor his holding a curious-looking wand as he said them. The notion struck him, too late, that a charm like that might not even work on a muggle. He wouldn't know, since it hadn't exactly been taught in school. It was more the type of thing that had been passed down in the dormitories, late at night, when boys talked about sex and pretended they had already used the charm.

Lily grabbed her fortune cookie and unwrapped its tiny piece of paper. "These things are never really fortunes. They're just useless bits of bad advice." She chomped on the cookie anyway, and slid another one toward Sirius. He cracked his open and read it.

Don't break up with Laura. It's nice to see you so happy. He smiled at her, and decided to take the fortune cookie's advice … for the time being.

#

The problem was, every time Sirius went out with Laura, whether to museums, or an all-night coffee shop where they chatted the night away, to rock concerts or to her flat to spend the night, he forgot about Voldemort. It felt so good to pretend that someone that evil didn't really exist. And Laura was happily oblivious, frequently suggesting impromptu trips out of London to places that Sirius had never given a second thought about. He loved watching her delight at discovering picturesque villages that he had only considered tourist traps. He imagined himself as a muggle on occasion, and wondered what it would be like to give up magic and live an ordinary life. Giving her a kiss every morning before heading off to some mundane muggle job. It would never happen, of course. No wizard ever just gave up their heritage, and he had no plans to, either. But it was nice to imagine such a thing. Muggles didn't know how good they had it.

Meanwhile, Order meetings had increased to every other week, and Sirius found himself growing frustrated at the lack of information about Death Eaters and Voldemort. He began to long for a showdown, to get the whole thing over with, but that seemed a long way off. Voldemort's methods were much more subversive, but at least the Order was growing, too, with Dumbledore's tireless efforts. So Sirius faithfully went to each meeting and did whatever was asked of him. The biggest problem he encountered was deflecting Marlene McKinnon's advances, which he had encouraged for approximately two weeks some months earlier. She hadn't given up hope, however, and lurked around at the end of each meeting, hoping to talk to him. He tried to shove her attraction over to Remus, but she would have nothing to do with a werewolf. Even Peter was encouraged to have a go at asking her out, but, when he had the opportunity, he couldn't manage to squeak out the words. She wouldn't have him, either, so Sirius was resigned to ignoring her. He hoped she would eventually get the message.

#

Laura

The spring and summer of 1979 was the happiest time of my life. Karma, or whatever you called it, finally seemed to be tipping in my favor, and I was madly in love with a gentle, handsome and clever man who might just be falling in love with me, too. I'd had a few minor collegiate relationships that had gone all kinds of nowhere, but I began to actually picture myself married to Sirius. I wouldn't ever tell him that, though; not at this point. We seemed to be spending almost every night together anyway, unless he had one of his mystery meetings with that group of people he didn't like to talk about. All I knew was that James and Lily went with him, and from the little snippets he let slip a few times, they sounded like some amateur crime-fighting group known as "The Order." I joked with him that they were neighborhood vigilantes, taking revenge on their fellow man for careless car-door dings and unmowed lawns, or perhaps rude men who didn't offer little old ladies a seat on the bus. Sirius would only smile and say "something like that." Then he would proceed to make me forget all about them, giving me toe-curling kisses and more.

By mid-September, he was with me all the time, though we still didn't consider ourselves officially living together. He had his quirks, of course. There were no telephone calls, ever. Tiny owls made an appearance every so often, bearing romantic messages, though when I stayed at his house, I never saw any. I loved the originality, but couldn't figure out how anyone could train an owl like that. Then there was the stick which he carried at all times and took pains to keep under wraps, at least from other people.

"When are you going to tell me what the purpose of that is?" I asked for the millionth time. Sirius wore a leather jacket, now that the weather had cooled off, and he stowed the carved stick in a specially made pocket. We were browsing around Brompton Cemetary, reading epitaphs on the crosses while he held my hand. One had a huge anchor wrapped around it, and I stopped to read.

"It's my magic wand, love. I told you." He grinned as usual, but lately he seemed a bit more preoccupied, as if he were contemplating telling me something he thought I wouldn't want to hear. I decided to head him off.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Absolutely," he said softly. "There are just …"

"What?" I demanded. "Listen, if you want to stop seeing me …"

"Why on earth would I want to do that?" Sirius said, and then kissed me in reassurance. "I'm in love with you, Laura." He kissed me again, more softly now, but the distant look was still there, coupled with a tinge of guilt. "There are just a lot of things about me that I'm afraid, once you know, will make you be the one to tell me that."

"Please. Such as?" I said it lightly, but he had me worried, just a little. What if I was wrong about him?

Sirius shrugged, and the moment was gone. "Nothing. Just my family. You know I don't speak to them."

"Yeah. And I totally get that, and it wouldn't drive me away, ever. We both have shitty parents."

"Oh, no. It's something else, about my brother. I had some intel- , er, news" he corrected hastily, "about him. I'm afraid he may be dead. He's not been heard from in some time."

"Oh my God. I'm sorry. What happened?"

"I really don't know. We hadn't spoken since I was at school. He fell in with … the wrong crowd, and I think they may have done him in."

I didn't know what to say to that. He had already told me his father had passed away a few months before we met, and I never quite got a handle on how he felt about that. He leaned against a headstone, and I put my arms around him.

"I'm so sorry to hear that," I said again. "I know you weren't close, but still …"

Sirius kissed me again, slowly, but then pulled away with a defeated look, and his eyes were bright. "I should have done something about it, years ago. I was so arrogant, though. I was in a different house than the rest of my family, and I was proud of it. He went the way they all did, and I think he paid for it."

"What do you mean, house?"

He laughed a little. "I forget that there aren't a lot of boarding schools where you're from. Kids who went to mine were divided into houses. There were four of them, at my school. One house was where all the … problem kids seemed to wind up. Regulus was in it."

"What was the name of the school?" I asked. He heaved himself off the tombstone, and we began to snake our way between the others once more. The grass was high, and no wonder. Mowing staff might be hard to keep around here.

"Hogwarts," he said, looking away.

"I'm sorry; did you say Hog Warts?" I asked. "You're joking, right?"

"No." He turned to me, and he was smiling again. "It was my favorite place in the world, growing up. It's where I met James."

"Where is this place?"

"Scottish highlands."

"Damn, that's a long way," I said. "I went to South Doyle. Just your average high school, three miles from where I lived. There were no 'houses' at that school. A lot of cliques, though."

"I'm sure it was a fun place, as well," Sirius said.

"Not really. I just wanted out. I still had to live with my parents, but I'd have given anything for a place like Hogwarts back then."

We exited the cemetery and kept on walking. "How's the thesis coming?" he asked, taking my hand once more.

"It's not. But I don't care." We came to the motorbike, which was illegally parked, as usual. By now, I had given up thinking that Sirius might get a fine for it. For some reason, it was always ignored by the police and meter maids.

"I'm just happy you're enjoying yourself, and I don't think you should worry about it. Where to, my dear?" he asked me. "Home, with me?" He leaned over slightly and leered at me.

"Sounds great." I climbed on the back, wrapped my arms around him, and wondered all the way home what his secrets were.

#

Sirius

By late September, the weather had cooled off even more, and evenings were becoming crisp and chilly. Sirius's internal debate on his relationship with Laura was still heated, though, and he knew the unexplained absences and oddities had begun to take a toll on her trust in him. The wand's presence had ceased to be a joking matter, but there was no way for him to explain what it meant unless he told her everything, and he didn't have a clue how to go about that.

One evening in the middle of the month, they had dinner with James and Lily at the other couple's house. Afterward, they moved into the living room. Sirius and James sipped firewhiskey, while Laura and Lily had something with a little less bite. After an hour or so of easy conversation, James and Sirius wandered outside, while the women took plates into the kitchen.

Sirius eased himself down on the front step, and James joined him, clutching a glass.

"So, Padfoot, have you told her yet?"

"No."

"And why not? Do you want to break up, after all?"

"Absolutely not," Sirius said. "I'm thinking she'll want to do the honors after I tell her what I am."

"Not if she loves you. Look, there are all kinds of mixed marriages these days. Laura already knows you're bloody peculiar. Telling her you're a wizard might just make her feel better about things."

"Right." Sirius took a sip of firewhiskey with a raised eyebrow, and warmed up immediately.

"Merlin, Sirius, you're going to have to do something. If she's worth having, she'll understand! I can tell she means a lot to you."

"It's … Voldemort. I think they killed Reg. If they'd do away with one of their own, what do you think they would do to a muggle who bonded with a wizard?"

"So … you want to bond with her?"

Sirius exhaled noisily. "I don't know. I don't think bonding would be the right thing for her. Perhaps a traditional muggle ceremony."

"Jesus. Same difference! You want to marry her!"

"I can't. There's no way she'd ever marry a wizard."

Now James sighed. "Don't be a git. I've never seen you with a woman you were happy with longer than ten minutes. Don't blow it. I think Laura would love you, no matter what."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Prongs," Sirius said softly.

"But. You've got to make sure she's aware of all the dangers. What we're doing … well, you know."

Sirius took another drink. "If I decide to do this, and if she says yes … and IF something ever happens to me, I want you to … y'know, act as my next of kin, so to speak."

"It won't happen, Pads. We'll all be fine." James gave Sirius a reassuring pat on the back. "So, are you going to ask her?"

"I have to tell her some things first. Might be no point in asking her anything, after that."

"Stop," James said. "I'm betting she'd marry you in a heartbeat."

Sirius gave a short laugh. "We'll see."