Harmony was noticing it, noticing him.
Before, he was just her little brother, all mischievous and annoying in the perfect little brother way. Now, she couldn't look at him. She couldn't look at the darkness. She couldn't stand how she was noticing everything now.
She couldn't look at the bags under his eyes. She couldn't look at his rapidly thinning hair, lacking shine and curl. She couldn't look at how thin he'd gotten. She couldn't look at how his clothes were always wrinkled, worn out. She couldn't look at Ryan, because Ryan wasn't there anymore. It was a ghost of him. A demon renting his body, renting without paying.
Harmony hadn't looked her brother in the face since he showed up that night, acting all innocent and confused. He stalked into the common room an hour later, having changed his pyjamas and brushed his hair, and directed his question at Harmony, "Why the hell did you run off? I came into the room and you apparated away."
She looked right at him as blankly as she possibly could and said, "My bad." Harmony then excused herself and vomited her entire stomach out in the dorm room bathroom. She woke up the next morning to the cold tiles of the bathroom floor, a nasty pain in her neck, sick feeling in her stomach, and an aching heart.
Harmony tried to stop thinking about that day by lighting up another match from the little box in her numb, cold hands. She threw the match with aggression at the pile of innocent paper resting on the stone ground of the Astronomy Tower. To her immense satisfaction, the pile instantly started to burn where the match had struck, fires erupting.
Her eyes followed the light trail of smoke up until it dissolved in the air above her, where thousands of stars glinted in the cold end-of-March night sky. She thought she had it bad. That was before she found out that her fourteen year old brother was working for Voldemort. Yeah, that was a downer.
Harmony wasn't eating properly, she was overworking herself to keep her mind away from everything, and most of all Sirius was practically attached to her hip - but that wasn't bad at all. Sirius was her grip on everything. He helped her though her shitty days and her good ones. They related on a whole different level, and no one knew what to call it. Especially not Harmony, for it was something entirely beyond her knowledge. The feelings...they were almost overpowering. One word swam through her mind, once, but she pushed it back because it seemed too fast, too much.
Harmony checked her watch, and decided it was time to get down to the common room. The boys would be arriving back from the full moon any minute, and even though Sirius told her not to wait up because she needed sleep, she did anyway. She always did. And each time, she would worry sick about each and every one of the marauders, especially Remus, for being or handling a werewolf wasn't shits and giggles.
Harmony cast a quick non-verbal charm, and water burst out of her wand, diminishing the eager flame on the paper. She pocketed her trusty matchbox and made her way through the quiet castle.
"Bum," she muttered the password. The Fat Lady looked embarrassed as she swung the portrait forward, admitting Harmony into Gryffindor Tower. Let's make a long story short in saying that the Fat Lady was very drunk when she decided to change the password the night before.
Harmony entered the deserted common room, and she sighed. They weren't back yet. She decided to still wait up, and scouted out the comfiest armchair, plopping down in it and curling up like a cat.
The rhythmic ticking of her watch in her ear as she leaned her head on her arm combined with warmth and cackling of the fire made Harmony doze, her mind retiring the debate (best types of fireworks) that had occupied her thoughts for the past ten minutes.
A little while later, Sirius limped in along with James and Peter, Remus being safely taken care of by the Hogwarts matron in the hospital wing. James pointed to an armchair and said, "She isn't looking good, mate."
Sirius followed James' arm and found Harmony asleep in a little ball by the fire. He limped over, taking in her dark under eye circles, pale skin, and thin wrists. Harmony's hair, however, was as curly and shiny as ever.
"You lot go up, I'll be a minute." Sirius called over his shoulder to his mates, not even sparing them a glance. "Harmony," he shook her gently, and to his surprise she woke up immediately.
"Sirius!" Harmony yelped, her forest-coloured eyes flying open. She jumped about four feet in the air.
"Hey, you shouldn't have stayed up. You're exhausted." Sirius said gently, now kneeling in front of her armchair.
"Sirius, I'm always going to stay up." she sighed. "I can't settle until I know you're safe."
Sirius smiled. He painfully got to his feet, which didn't escape Harmony's notice. "What happened this time?" she asked gently, following Sirius' lead and getting to her feet.
"Just a couple of scratches." Sirius replied nonchalantly, looking anywhere but at Harmony.
"I believe you told me that about those horrible nail marks from Bellatrix back at Christmas." Harmony reminded, smiling gently.
Sirius sighed, and said, "You're going to keep me captive here until I show you, aren't you?"
Harmony stood, pulling her zip jumper tighter around her cold body. "Pretty much."
Sirius sighed, and took off his shirt. There was a deep, bleeding gash along his hip bone, along with a couple other scratches and cuts. No others were quite as frightening as the one on his hip, though. "Shit, Sirius! What are you playing at, playing games with him?"
"Hey, we weren't playing games." Sirius muttered unconvincingly.
"I know you and James. You can't help yourselves. Especially while in the company of a riled up werewolf." Harmony sighed, reaching for her wand on the wooden table beside the still-warm armchair.
"Harmony, you don't have to. You should go to bed." Sirius crossed his arms over his chest.
"Shut up, Sirius." Harmony replied, deciding what spell to use. "Couch." she pointed to the Gryffindor-coloured red couch and Sirius laid down obediently.
He wisely kept quiet as Harmony breathed out her familiar healing spells, and eventually the wound started to close. "It'll still hurt, and my work isn't great because it's so deep and it's a werewolf scratch, but it stopped bleeding." Harmony told him, standing up and surveying her work.
A moment went by where Sirius was still sprawled on the couch, his hip awkwardly sticking up.
"...you can get up now." Harmony leaned on the armchair, the fire warming her body.
"Shh, I'm seducing you." Sirius replied, screwing up his face and looking up at her with half-closed eyes.
"Well it's not working. I can tell you that." Harmony said. "You look drunk and ready to pass out."
Sirius' face twitched as he tried to contain a smile.
Harmony, however, didn't try to contain anything when she burst out laughing. It felt so good to laugh, laugh hard and not worry about everything for a moment that she found she couldn't stop. She was still in hysterics as she stumbled over to a now-laughing Sirius. She leaned down and hugged Sirius around the neck. And right when she went to pull back, trying to calm down, he grabbed her around the middle and pulled her down on top of him. And that set them of again, in body-shaking, tear-flowing, ab-forming hysterics.
About ten minutes later, Peter stumbled down the boys' staircase, looking absolutely petrified. "What-what are you doing?"
He took in the scene: the empty common room, roaring fires, long shadows, and finally the red couch containing a bundle of tangled limbs and loud laughter.
Sirius heard Peter, Harmony looking over too. It was silent for about four seconds until Harmony tried to contain a snort. Then, to Peter's utter confusion and astonishment, they both started up again. It looked as though Harmony was trying to stand up, roll off Sirius, but she was too hysterical to control her own muscles.
Sirius vaguely registered that Peter had scurried off back up the stairs, hiding from all this insanity.
Harmony and Sirius slowly started to calm, until it was just giggling. She shakily used Sirius' pillow-propped up shoulders to push herself off him.
"What-what happened?" Harmony asked, grinning. She leaned over Sirius and collected all the fireworks that had come out of her pockets while rolling around like a maniac.
"I have no idea, but it felt good either way." Sirius smiled crookedly and stood, retrieving his shirt.
"It did feel good." Harmony agreed, nodding. She looked down and cringed at the state of her clothing. Her sweater was hanging off one arm, hair completely tangled up in the other sleeve, and her t-shirt shirt was crumpled up, revealing the waistband of her jeans which were completely twisted. The little back tag intended to be at her lower back was alined with her hip.
"Look what you did to me." she chuckled, gesturing to her frazzled-up self. "Isn't this a mess."
Sirius grinned and stalked over. He roughly removed her sweater after pulling at it in several places with no give, and Harmony laughed as his face contorted while trying to figure out how in the world her hair got to tangled up in a piece of clothing. He smoothed out her white t-shirt and turned her pants back in order, his cold knuckles brushing against her hip bones and making her yelp. "There you go." he smiled, (ignoring her "Go put your hands in the fire Sirius, good god."). Sirius continued. "Wait," then he leaned over and patted her hair a bit, trying to control it.
"That's a lost cause." she crossed her arms as his elbow narrowly missed colliding with her nose.
"Not entirely." he muttered, eyebrows furrowing as he concentrated.
Harmony patiently waited while he patted and smoothed and detangled her hair. Finally, he pulled back. "Well, at least I like it."
Harmony cocked her head to one side and said, "Thanks?"
"It defines you." Sirius tapped Harmony's nose affectionately. "If you ever try to make it straight I'll throw you in the lake."
"Believe me, my hair doesn't do straight."
"Well, it's straight and like smooth at the top." Sirius commented, considering her hair. "Then it gets all long and ringlet-y and stuff."
Harmony laughed, pushing herself up off the chair so she collided with Sirius' strong body. It didn't even phase him. He was thin, but a fit thin that had strength; one you didn't want to get in a fistfight with. Or a game of Quidditch.
"Your hair..." she started. "Well, it's your hair."
"Thanks." he said flatly.
"That must have had a toll on your confidence. Sorry about that." she said, grinning.
"I don't know if I'm ever going to recover." Sirius agreed, sticking a bottom lip out childishly.
Harmony started pecking his lip repeatedly with her own lips, until it eventually stopped pouting.
"I should pout more often." Sirius tucked the one stray hair of hers behind her ear. It was no use, because it always slipped out, but he liked doing it.
"Don't expect me to kiss you every time. I only do it if you deserve it." Harmony told him, settling her hands on his t-shirt clad chest.
"I deserved that one?"
"Yeah, because I insulted you without you provoking me." Harmony smiled lightly, the little burst of energy from her laughing high slowly wearing off.
"You're tired. You should sleep." Sirius said, not letting go of Harmony.
She hugged him around the waist, his chest providing a solid surface for her to rest her head. "I don't think I want to."
"Why's that?"
"Because then I'd see you dead."
Sirius leaned down and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Well, I have a solution."
He had an arm around her waist a he took Harmony up the staircase to his dorm. "You sure they won't mind?" Harmony whispered, gesturing to the sleeping shapes of James and Peter.
"Have they before? Besides, it's five in the morning. They can't do anything about it." Sirius countered, guiding her over to his bed.
"Fuck, Sirius. We have school in like four hours." Harmony yawned.
"Not if we're sick tomorrow."
Harmony chuckled. "You make me do bad things, Sirius Black."
"Good." Sirius smiled tiredly. He only then realized how utterly exhausted he was from chasing a werewolf all night.
Harmony threw her sweater off and climbed into Sirius' familiar bed. His scent was present everywhere, and it calmed her down immediately. It reminded her of all those nights she had bad nightmares or he was sore and tired from the full moon and just wanted to have her comfort.
Sirius had went into the bathroom to brush his teeth, and so Harmony spread the blankets properly and fixed the pillows to keep herself awake until he came back.
Sirius came out of the bathroom, pulled his shirt off, and slipped in beside Harmony. His breath smelled minty as he pecked her cheek.
"Goodnight," she breathed out, turning her body onto her side to curl into him.
"Goodnight." he replied, his voice already thick with sleep as he intertwined their fingers under the quilted blanket.
"We're sick." Sirius muttered.
Harmony squeezed her eyes together, willing her slumber not to shatter.
"No, you're not." a female voice said sharply.
Harmony groaned internally, already picturing Lily in her uniform, arms crossed and foot tapping on the floor.
"You're going to be late! I know you don't like waking up, but this is ridiculous." Lily snapped.
Harmony suddenly felt a mighty tug on her leg and she went tumbling off the bed. "WHAT THE FUCK?" she screeched, opening her eyes from the ground. She'd pulled all the covers off with her.
"Get up! Class starts in twenty minutes!" Lily said angrily. "Glad to see you're fully clothed, though."
"Lily!" Harmony yelled, struggling into a sitting position. The light coming from the window was blinding.
"Harmony!" Lily mocked, prodding Sirius with her wand. He blindly threw an arm up to the pointy wood assaulting his back. He missed entirely.
"LILY?" James roared, sitting straight up in his bed, eyes blinking rapidly into the sudden bright light. His eyes were big and very hazel without his glasses on.
Sirius snorted from his bed, face still in the pillow.
"James-!" Lily cried, outraged. "You-why aren't any of you up?"
"It was Harmony's fault!" James yelled, gesturing wildly to the complete opposite side of the room that Harmony was on.
Harmony sat up, leaning against the wall. "I'm over here, you hippogriff."
They must have looked like a sight: James sitting at a perfect 90 degree angle in his bed, blinking confusedly and pointing blindly at Peter, Sirius face first in his pillow without blankets, and Harmony and her crazy hair sitting in a bundle of cover on the floor.
"You know what?" Lily said, scary calm. "I'm not even going to bother."
"Collect homework for us!" Harmony called, so quietly that Sirius snorted.
Lily left and Sirius said muffled, "Come back. I'm cold."
"PADFOOT!" James screamed like a twelve year old just to annoy everyone. "LILY SAW ME WITHOUT A SHIRT!"
"SHUT UP PRONGS!" Sirius roared, as Harmony climbed back into bed, snorting.
James giggled joyfully and jumped up, reaching for his uniform, clearly now wide awake.
"I'M IN THE ROOM SO PLEASE DON'T TAKE OFF YOUR PANTS JAMES POTTER." Harmony shut her eyes tightly curled up into a ball because James had popped the button off his jeans that he slept in from the night before, and was in the process of removing them when Harmony yelled.
Sirius started laughing, the pillow still eating his face. "Right!" James said, running into the bathroom, the door slamming.
"Can we sleep?" Sirius moaned.
"Yes." Harmony breathed out, relaxing into a comfortable position and falling rapidly asleep again.
Harmony pushed open the door to the marauder's dormitory with her hip, her hands occupied by the tray of food and drinks in her arms.
It was about two in the afternoon, and she'd woken up a half hour before because her stomach was rumbling painfully. So, she a crept out of bed and snuck down to the kitchens for food while classes were still in progress.
"Sirius," Harmony singsonged to his still sleeping frame.
There was no response, so she tried a couple more times. Still nothing.
"I'M SHIRTLESS!" Harmony yelled as loud as she could, the door shutting behind her. Sirius shot up in bed and groggily scanned the room for any signs of a shirtless Harmony.
"Tricked you," she grinned, while flopping down on his mattress next to him.
"That was unfair!" Sirius cried, adjusting his body in a comfortable sitting position. He rubbed his eyes and said, "You mischievous being."
"That's me." Harmony reached for the tray, "But I brought you food so you'll automatically forgive me for waking you up."
"You're forgiven," Sirius muttered, his eyes taking in the food hungrily. "I could eat a hippogriff. That's how hungry I am."
"Alright, well, dibs on the carrots." Harmony told him instantly.
He looked at her funny and said, "You're weird."
"Wow, that took you a really long time to figure out. With most people, they discover that lovely fact within seconds of a conversation with me." Harmony sipped from the warm mug of coffee on the tray.
She reached to put it down but Sirius grabbed it from her hands eagerly, taking a sip. "What's the time?"
"Two." Harmony replied.
He nodded and they ate in a comfortable silence
"Let's go to the common room." Harmony suggested, after they had cleaned the tray of food.
"I just need a shirt," Sirius climbed out of the bed, stumbling around while looking for his clothing.
Harmony stood and walked over to him. "How do you feel this morning?"
"Good. You fixed me up well." Sirius smiled.
Harmony glanced down to see that the cut was healed, but there was dry blood smeared everywhere. "Hold on, I'm going to clean that up. Don't put a clean shirt on yet."
She walked over to the bathroom. When she entered, it smelled of cologne and had towels, toothbrushes, and various deodorants strewn all over the countertop. Harmony located a clean washcloth and wet it, squeezing it so it wouldn't drip on the way there.
Sirius was seated on Remus' tidy bed when she came back out. He was trying to flatten his hair in vain.
Harmony smiled, set the warm cloth on his bare shoulder, and moved his hands away from his head. She patted the top of his head until his hair didn't add three inches to his height anymore.
"There, now it looks fantastic." Harmony told him, pulling away to inspect her work. It looked half-normal now.
"Thanks." Sirius said, getting to his feet. "Try not to check out my chest too much, or my abs. The perfection is known to burn eyes."
"You know what else burns eyes?" Harmony smiled evilly. "The fireworks that I glue to them."
Sirius backed down with a laugh. "Okay, alright. I'll stop being a pig-head."
Harmony lightly trailed the washcloth over all his little scratches on his chest, the blood coming off easily. She turned him around gently and repeated the process on his back. Finally, she tackled the biggest wound on his hip, dry blood glued to his skin and the waistband of his boxers, which was visible.
"Ouch," he muttered quietly, flinching as Harmony applied pressure to the gash while trying to scrape off the blood.
"Sorry." She said instantly, continuing to wipe, but more gently. She finished and leaned away from him. "That's going to be a nasty bruise."
"Aren't they all." Sirius sighed, then stalked over to the messy closet for a clean shirt.
He selected one off the hanger (for record it was the only one on a hanger) and slipped it on, Harmony's eyes following his every move as she leaned back against the bed post.
"Isn't that James' shirt?" Harmony asked, smiling.
"I have no idea. I don't keep track." Sirius grinned, throwing what looked to be Remus' jumper on. "Is that bad?"
"I think it's very cute, the level of brotherliness you've all come to terms with." Harmony chuckled, throwing her arms around Sirius loosely.
"We're brothers. At heart." Sirius said loyally.
"Even Pete?" Harmony asked tentatively, for Peter had always seemed like the follower, the little outcast.
"Even Wormtail. You'd be surprised, how much that little bloke contributes to pranks and such. He's great when you get to know him." Sirius told her truthfully, an arm around Harmony's waist and the other cupping her face.
Harmony nodded and leaned up to kiss Sirius on her tippy toes. She felt Sirius smile as he kissed her back.
Suddenly, there was a camera flash and Harmony and Sirius shot apart. "Bloody hell," Sirius muttered.
"SURPRISE!" James yelled brightly. "I took this period off to see you guys! Although I was hoping for something a bit more exciting." James frowned down at the picture he had taken.
"James!" Harmony yelled. "What the hell?"
"Oh, did I interrupt something?" James grinned, flopping down on his bed. "You'll never guess what happened!"
"What?" Harmony said tiredly, sitting on Remus' bed.
"I said hi to Lily at breakfast this morning and she said hi back! But here's the best part - she blushed!" James said ecstatically.
"James, sweetheart," Harmony began, trying not to laugh at how bubbly he was. "Lily blushes at the word 'poop'. Don't take it as a sign."
"But-" James said, his head deflating.
Sirius kicked Harmony, so she said hurriedly, "Well-uhm, you never know. It could definitely mean something."
James' eyes turned serious behind his glasses. "Guys," he said. "I think I love her."
Harmony sighed, sympathy oozing from her every pore. "Oh James." She went over and sat down beside him. "You need to give it time, okay? You need to wait for her. She'll come around. Can I tell you something?" she whispered, nudging his shoulder.
He nodded, leaning in. "She had - has - feelings for you." Harmony told him.
He looked at Harmony in shock for a long moment. "What?" he recoiled, eyes wide. "If you're shitting me-"
"What kind of person do you think I am? I'm not shitting you, you prat." Harmony sighed. "Long story short, she has feelings for you, and has for a while, but they've just been buried, hidden because of all the dick moves you've pulled."
James looked at her with a new light. "For-for real?"
"Yes, James!" Harmony laughed. "She has the ability to love you, but only you can activate it…you know?"
James smiled widely, "I can so do this."
"I like to hear the confidence," Harmony smiled too, giving James a quick one-armed hug.
James held on, lifting her up and spinning her around. "I CAN SEE IT! LILY EVANS MIGHT ACTUALLY BE LILY POTTER ONE DAY!" he screeched, reverting back to being annoying and purposely immature again. It was his way of dealing with things, of changing the mood of the atmosphere back to a lighter tone.
"OI!" Sirius yelled from across the room. "Put my constellation down." he said childishly.
James set Harmony down, and ran over to Sirius, giving him a bear hug. "Will you be my best man?"
"What?" Sirius recoiled, looking horrified from James to Harmony.
Harmony snorted with laughter. "Were you not paying attention to the conversation we just had?"
"Well, not entirely-"
"James'll fill you in!" Harmony said cheerfully, moving to make her exit as James started babbling on about One Million and One Things That Are Perfect About Lily Evans.
Harmony went up to Sirius, gave him a lingering kiss on his soft lips, and left to wait in the common room.
Sure enough, Sirius came down about five minutes later, looking slightly traumatized. "What did he say this time?"
Sirius looked weirded out. "He, uhm...this is weird. She's your best mate."
"I'm pretty sure I can handle it." Harmony suppressed a grin while getting up from the couch. His face was priceless.
"Well, I'm not going to repeat anything because it's way too uncomfortable talking about Lily like that, but he, uh, went into specifics about his little honeymoon fantasies."
Harmony started laughing. "That's hilarious! How did you get away?"
"Told him to write them down and I'll read them later." Sirius swallowed.
"Sirius! He's writing pornography up there all alone...oh man, poor bloke." Harmony was still laughing, Sirius joining in.
"Let's leave before he decides to read them aloud to us." Sirius grabbed Harmony's hand and together they ran out of the portrait hole and throughout the castle.
Finally, the two had to stop from laughing so hard. "Where do you want to go?" Harmony asked, leaning against the wall to catch her breath.
"How about the Room of Requirement?" Sirius suggested.
"Sure." Sirius intertwined their fingers as Harmony replied. The bell rang suddenly, and the hungry and relived rush of students flowed out of the classrooms like lava out of an erupting volcano.
"Blimey," Sirius muttered, as thunder cracked outside the castle. Another legendary Hogwarts thunderstorm.
He pulled them into a shortcut behind a tapestry. "Do you have these bloody things all over the castle?" Harmony spit a spiderweb out of her mouth, trying not to panic from the darkness and presence of who knows how large spiders.
"Pretty much." Sirius pulled her through to the other side, to where the corridor was empty. Well, almost empty.
"Ryan," Harmony muttered, trying to go back into the tapestry.
He had already seen them. "Harmony...Black."
"Afternoon, Sea." Sirius said politely, gripping Harmony's hand tightly as she not-so-subtly tried to make a run for the shortcut.
"You don't have to always be touching her, you know. We get that she's been tricked into your little game. No need to rub it in when you break her heart." Ryan spat, his temper flaring out of no where. Here we go, Harmony thought.
"Ryan!" she sighed. "Stop it."
"Just shut up, Harmony. You don't know what I do. He's a right git. All he'll do is snog you then leave you. How long has this one lasted?" he shot the last part at Sirius, stomping over to the pair.
"Almost two months, thank you very much." Sirius replied calmly. Harmony knew he was trying to be the mature one here by not raising his voice. Either way, this entire situation was immature, but Harmony got the gist that Ryan had been cooking up the perfect combination of words to say once he had the chance.
"I know that all you do is snog! When was the last time you had a serious conversation? You're using her!" Ryan shot back, his dark eyes flashing. His words sounded scripted, like he'd gone over them all in his head before he said them aloud.
Sirius looked at Harmony, disbelief written all over his face. "Where is this coming from?" he asked, dumbfounded. This was not was he or Harmony had expected to fight about when they did encounter Ryan.
"It's his mind, that's what." Harmony spat, getting out from behind Sirius. "It's all in that twisted, warped mind of yours."
"You're being ridiculous."
"Don't lie to me, Ryan." Harmony said, looking into her brother's eyes for the first time in what felt like weeks.
"What are you on about?"
"Harmony," Sirius warned, placing a hand on her back. "This probably isn't the best setting."
"I don't have much control over what's coming out of my mouth at the moment, Sirius." Harmony hissed. "As for you, you little traitor-"
"I, uh-" Ryan looked nervous and less confident than he did before. Harmony wasn't sure what the dominant emotion would be when she finally got to talk to him about all this - anger or sadness? - but it was quite obvious that it was more of an unprovoked rage than a sad, desperate sister.
Suddenly, a burst of noise erupted form the end of the corridor and a big group of Hufflepuff fifth years came down the hall, chatting loudly. Harmony and Sirius turned to look, and when they had turned back to Ryan they found only empty air in his place.
"He's ought to know," Sirius said finally after they stayed there in silence until the group passed by.
A tapestry burst into flames beside Harmony. She was clearly seething. "He's a fucking muggleborn! Surely he realizes that he's going to die in the end?"
Sirius yelped, leaping away from the flames and hurrying to put it out with his wand. "Okay," Sirius said quietly, knowing a full scale rant was going to come on if he didn't do something. "Listen, let's not-"
"I have to do something! I'm sitting back, watching that smelly old snake ruin my little brother! I have to protect him. Why does it have to be me? Why the fuck does it have to be me? Why am I so important? So vital, killing a good part of his army? I still don't know why I was even put into Gryffindor!" Harmony sunk to the floor in a defeated manner. "I don't want this. I want everything to be back the way it was."
Sirius slid down the cold stone wall and took a seat next to her. She went on, "I hardly have a place at school, never mind in this war. I want to know why it had to be me, why my family got dragged into all this dark Death Eater shit. I would be able to handle it if it was just me, but Sirius," Harmony turned to him desperately. "you have no idea. I'm losing it. I worry, every second of every day, for all you guys." Harmony wiped her eyes, anger and hate and fear seeping into her mind.
"I do know. I do know, Harmony. I really do. My family is fucked up. Beyond fucked. The only one I genuinely care for is Reg. The only one. I worry, like you, constantly, although it may not seem like it." Sirius turned to Harmony, looking right into her forest-green eyes. "You're beautiful, you're innocent, you're hilarious, you're kind, caring, sweet, fun, creative, and so many other things I can't even begin to describe. You belong here, you have a place. You're a Gryffindor, and I've never met someone more worthy of that title. I don't know about you, but without all this war, I wouldn't have connected with you, related, bonded. So, let's look on the bright side. We have amazing friends. We have a warm place to call home." he gestured around them to the strong ancient walls of Hogwarts. "And Harmony?" he lifted her chin gently with his fingers. "We have each other."
Harmony took one look at Sirius, then she launched herself at him, breathing in his scent and feeling the solidness of his body against hers; thanking her every lucky star that this boy entered her life. "I don't know how you do it, but you always manage to make everything seem better."
"I try." Sirius laughed, his chest rumbling. It was quiet as Harmony stayed curled up beside Sirius, her arms around him in an awkward angle that neither of them cared about.
"I lied. I don't want everything to be the way it was before because then I wouldn't have my personal motivator-slash-snog buddy, would I?" Harmony grinned against his shirt, pulling her head up to watch his reaction.
Sirius just kissed her. And kissed her and kissed her and kissed her and kissed her. They kissed until their lips were swollen, until Sirius smelled of Harmony's perfume. They kissed until they were somehow standing, stumbling around and knocking over a suit of armour.
They kissed and didn't stop until James stumbled across them with his bloody camera again.
"James!" Harmony yelled, still wrapped around Sirius. "You fucking bloody git."
"I can sell this!" James exclaimed, already laughing so hard tears ran down his face.
"Done writing down your fantasies, I'm assuming?" Sirius shot back hotly, his face flushed.
"Shut it." James muttered, turning beat red and lowering the camera. "Everyone is looking for you. You'll miss dinner."
Harmony sighed, not wanting to end this moment. Finally, she pulled away from Sirius, but never letting go of him the whole way back to Gryffindor Tower.
A/N: I need to give a shoutout to Lewtam because their review really made my day. Thanks!