Our Endless Numbered Days

Chapter 8-London Calling

June 14, 1981

Josephine Flanders had to be the absolute most confusing girl that Sirius had ever met. One minute she was angry at the world, at him, the next she waltzed into his room and awkwardly asked him if he wanted to go to London with her. Sirius had said yes immediately, and not just because it was his job. Days of not having any interaction with Josie had left him like a man lost in the desert; thirsty for whatever he could get. Her moods, hot one minute, cold the next, normally would have put him off her entirely. In a time like this, Sirius had no time to play games with an immature muggle girl, but he couldn't help himself. He told himself that it wasn't that he wanted a relationship with her; he just wanted the chase, the challenge. And Josie certainly wasn't making it easy.

At Hogwarts, if he had wanted a girlfriend, he never had to look very far. There were plenty of girls who were interested in him, and while none of them interested him very much, they were good to keep around for a couple months, for a snog here and there, whenever the fancy struck him. Not that it struck him often, mind you. In his seven years at Hogwarts, he had had perhaps three girlfriends, each lasting about three or four months. When their relationship came crashing down around him because of his lack of communication or motivation to put any effort whatsoever into the relationship, he would always wind up lying in his bed at night, swearing off birds for good. It wasn't that he was particularly hurt by their accusations; in fact, he would agree with them. But it was all too much trouble, to be honest. And Sirius wasn't cruel; as much as, by the end of the relationship, the girlfriend annoyed him, he didn't want to see the girl crying and heartbroken.

No, Sirius knew he was no good. No matter how much the next girl thought she could change him, she wouldn't. He hadn't had a proper relationship in a few years, not since the end of the Hogwarts. He hadn't wanted one. Sure he would go off with a girl he had met in a bar on occasion, but that was it. He didn't need to be attached to anyone, especially not in a war like this where you could be alive one day and dead the next. He didn't want to put anyone through that, the pain of losing a lover. It seemed selfish to him. So after he had graduated, joined up with the aurors and with the Order, he told himself that he wouldn't get truly involved with a girl.

But somehow, Josie had managed to make him rethink his priorities. He didn't know what it was about her, but somehow, this indecisive, naïve, immature, almost eighteen year old girl made him want to throw all of his principles out the window and just kiss her. Not that he would actually do that; he was pretty sure she was involved with that Matt kid, however much she protested the contrary. They may be fighting right now, but they'd patch things up eventually. And, considering her behavior, it didn't appear that she was interested in him in the least. He wasn't going to push the issue. Yes, he wanted her, but Josie was a nice enough girl. She didn't deserve to be saddled with his baggage when she had barely begun to live her own life.

Tomorrow, they would go into muggle London. It wouldn't be the first time that Sirius had ventured out into the other world, but it would be his first time with a muggle. The other times that he had gone had either been by himself or with a group of magical friends. He wondered if, suddenly, with a guide, the muggle world would make sense. But the chances of that actually happening were very slim. In fact, he was almost one hundred percent certain that the day would only make things more complicated.

If only he knew that it wasn't going to be the type of complications he'd thought they'd be.

Awkward was perhaps the only word that Josie could come up with to describe her outing with Sirius in London. They barely talked and when they did, it was stilted and forced. She missed the way things had been not even a week ago, when they were able to talk for hours and never get bored. But as they walked the streets of London, Sirius walking just close enough to her so that people would know that they were together, but far enough away so that they didn't touch, there were no words to be said. Sirius' eyes were on the people around them, performing his duty as he assessed their threat to her. Josie, for the most part, kept her eyes on the pavement in front of her. It was awful. She hadn't felt so uncomfortable in her entire life. Sirius didn't seem to be affected by it at all, which annoyed her more than she'd like to admit.

She wanted him to be affected. She wanted him to be uncomfortable too. If he acknowledged the tension between them, then perhaps that might be a sign that he too felt something for her. At least, felt enough for her that the awkwardness between them was cause for concern. But no, they walked along in silence, aimlessly, and Josie had no idea how to change the mood without revealing that she'd like to jump his bones. Because if she expressed concern over the state of their "relationship" at this point in time, when Sirius, himself, was completely unconcerned (and apparently not feeling the awkward tension at all), then she might as well just come out and say that she was in love with him.

Not that she was in love with him. It was a bit premature for that.

"You hungry?" Sirius asked her suddenly. She jumped slightly at being addressed for the first time in nearly an hour.

"Yeah, a bit. I could do with a sit down. We've been walking around a long time."

"There's a café up there, if you want."

"I mean, only if you want to. If you're not hungry, then we can keep walking. I can last. Besides, I had a big breakfast. Mrs. Pierce made sure of it. And there's so much more we haven't seen. We should take advantage of the fact that it's not raining or anything right now. Because it will. Start raining I mean. Because this is London and that's just what the weather does. But you know this, 'cause you live here too and all—"

"Josie!" She immediately snapped her mouth shut. Sirius smirked, amused. "You're babbling."

"Well, yeah. Sorry about that."

"C'mon, let's go get a sandwich. At the very least, if you start to babble again, you can stuff your mouth with food to stop yourself." Josie blushed slightly, but a small smile made its way over her face.

"Okay, let's go." And taking a daring move, Josie clasped Sirius' hand in hers and moved towards the café. She couldn't have been more pleased when, instead of pulling away, he gave her hand a small squeeze.

"So the last person in the magical world famous for their music is this Celestina Warbeck character? " Josie asked. Lunch had gone surprisingly well; the tension around them had eased. Now, Josie had dragged Sirius into the music store and was lazily looking through records, while Sirius told her about the poor state of magical music.

"She's awful, I'm telling you. Her backup singers are literal banshees."

"But there's been no one since her?" Came Josie's amazed need for clarification. Sirius shrugged.

"Not really. The Hobgoblins were only just starting to gain some fame before You-know-who came along. Now there are more important things to worry about than music."

"Fair enough, I suppose. So, I know you hate Celestina Warbeck, but how about these Hobgoblin characters? Any good?"

"They're okay. I haven't listened to them that much, to be honest."

"I really can't imagine how you all get on without music," Josie commented. "And how you've all gotten on in life without bands like The Kinks, Pink Floyd, Queen, David Bowie."

"What's so great about them?" Josie stared at Sirius in shock.

"What's so great about them? Dear lord, this is worse than I thought. When we get home, we're going to have a crash course in music. You cannot go on with your life without listening to these bands."

"I've done pretty good up until now," Sirius commented, amused.

"Oh whatever you've done before now isn't living." Josie turned back to the records, flipping through a new pile. "Ah ha! There you are," she picked up and brandished the record she was looking for."C'mon, I gotta go pay for this." Sirius followed obediently as she walked up the cash register.

The girl behind the cash register was a blonde, whose hair was pulled back into a high pony tail, held together with a bright pink scrunchie. Beyond that, Sirius could not describe the girl because her face was covered by a brightly colored magazine with a group of far too well groomed looking teenage boys on it. The sound of gum being popped reached his ears and Sirius winced. Josie wasn't phased in the slightest. She placed the record on the counter and the cashier brought down her magazine, dogearing the page that she was reading and got to her job.

"Just this?" Josie nodded.

"Yeah that'll be it." At the sound of her voice, the girl behind the counter's head snapped up.

"Josie? Is that you?" She popped her gum one more time.

"Oh my gosh! Donna!" The two girls screamed at the unexpected reunion and Sirius winced once more. He was sure dogs in three counties had lifted their ears in response to their squealing. "What are you doing home? I thought you went to the South of France with your family." Donna rolled her eyes.

"No, the parentals changed the plans last minute. Thought it might be good for me to go out and get some 'real world experience'. Because, like, working in a record store is going to strengthen my character or something. I totally forgot that you were around too, or else I would have given you a call. We should totally, like, hang out sometime soon. I've missed having friend time. I've been doing nothing but working at this bleedin' store for the past few weeks."

"Yeah, I've just been holed up at home for the most part."

"Are you, like, grounded for the whole thing that happened at the end of the year?" Donna asked, her voice laced with sympathy.

"No, actually. But well, I thought you were all away, so my only contact with the outside world is Matt, but we're fighting right now."

"God, our social lives are, like, so pathetic. Who's the dish, by the way?" She asked, nodding towards Sirius, who up until this point had managed to stay out of the conversation.

"Oh, uh, this is Sirius. Sirius, this is my friend Donna, from school." Donna sized him up shamelessly.

"Sirius, huh? No wonder you and Matt are fighting. I totally understand that. He's fine." Sirius felt distinctly uncomfortable about where this conversation was going.

"Uh, you guys know I'm standing right here. I can hear everything you're saying," He finally spoke up.

"Oooo, even his voice is dishy. Good job, Josie." Josie flushed.

"It's not like that. He's um, my new bodyguard."

"Oh that's so romantic!"

"Only not," Sirius added, "because there's nothing romantic going on between Josie and myself." At these words Josie felt her heart sink.

"Yeah," she agreed halfheartedly. "Listen, we need to get going, so if I could just pay…"

"Oh don't worry about it," Donna said, "I've got you covered, girlie. You go on ahead and enjoy your time with Mr. Dishy Bodyguard here." Josie half wondered if it was possible for a hole to just open up in the ground for her to fall through. Perhaps the witches and wizards had a spell for when they would like to drop off the face of the Earth when they were embarrassed.

"Uh thanks. Call me?"

"For sure!" Not wasting another minute, Sirius and Josie left the shop and began to walk down the street.

"Interesting friend you've got there," Sirius remarked when they were a far enough distance away. Josie groaned.

"She's usually not that bad. She can be a bit of an airhead, obviously, but she usually turns on the filter between her thoughts and her mouth." Sirius laughed.

"Don't worry about it. Besides, it isn't so bad being referred to as Mr. Dishy Bodyguard." Josie closed her eyes in her mortification.

"Ugh, don't remind me. For the record, I would never call you that."

"What, you don't think I'm dishy?" Sirius teased. Josie flushed again.

"No, that's not what I meant. I mean, yeah, you're dishy—speaking purely objectively here—but I'd never actually come out and say it to your face like that."

"You think I'm dishy," Sirius teased. "I knew that eventually you'd fall victim to my rugged good looks."

"No! I don't—I mean, it's just—"Sirius broke off her broken rambling with a loud laugh.

"Josie, love, I'm just teasing." She sighed.

"Whatever, Sirius." She responded, sulkily.

"Oh Josie, don't be like that."

"Like what?" Sirius' reply was covered by the loudest crash Josie had ever heard. They both turned around at the sound. The color drained from Sirius' face as the street was swarmed with people in black robes and masks. The Death Eaters were attacking.

A/N: Shhhh. We're just going to forget I was ever here. Still on hiatus. Still in Russia.

In other news, saw Deathly Hollows today…in Russian. There isn't a single movie theater in this city playing it with subtitles instead of dubbing. Sadness. Regardless, I thought it was good. Thought it would be a good idea to celebrate by posting this chapter.

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