Chapter 22

"You do realize that nothing you could ever do to him could be worse than what he'll put himself through if he makes it worse. That's why he came to talk to her. Not for himself really, for her sake. He may not show it most of the time, but he cares for others more than he does for himself. I think it's because he's a nice guy. Remus said once that it's because he grew up not having a lot of friends, not having anyone else to care about, so that now that he does, he would do anything to protect them and save that bond. I think Remus is right too, though I won't pretend to understand it completely. I just wanted you two to know that he's not doing this to help himself feel better about whatever it was he did, he's trying to make things right with her, and make it better for her." James was looking directly at us with the most serious and sincere look I had ever seen on his face. It was the same expression he had when we had had our talk about our relationship a couple months ago, about just being friends until I could handle anything more than that.

"You should let that side out more, you know. You should let it show." I said without thinking.

"Hm..? Let what show?" James looked at me puzzled.

"The side of you that's kind and mature. You're really more mature than you seem, you just behave like a child all the time. It makes people laugh, and it makes people recognize you, but they would have more respect for you if you were a little more serious every now and then."

"Who says I'm interested in respect?" James raised an eyebrow.

"No one, it was just a thought. You have a side of you that you rarely let show, and it's a pity that do so, that's all."

"Hmm..." James took a moment to consider this.

"That's the side of him that I tried for three years to convince him to show you more often. For some reason he and Sirius treated this suggestion as a form of blasphemy and tossed it aside like a radioactive bug that makes you turn purple with pink polka dots all over." Remus rolled his eyes.

"It's not that we didn't understand what you meant, it was that we were having too much fun being kids. We figure we only live once, why not make childhood last as long as we can?"

"Huh... That's oddly wise of you." I looked at him suspiciously.

"Another of the things my father told me before her died. 'Make your childhood last as long as you can, it's the only one you'll get and it passes faster than you think.' He told me that the week before he was killed."

A nice awkward silence filled the hall where everyone averted their eyes from James. "Well," I said, breaking the unbearable silence "let's go downstairs and give them some space."

James sort of grunted in agreement and turned on his heel, heading to the stairs. Remus, Rebby and I followed him, and when he reached the stairs he stepped, probably without thinking, on the first one then promptly fell on his face and slid down to the bottom where he landed in a crumpled heap.

"That looked painful." I said, trying not to laugh. It really wasn't the time for laughter, but seeing James Potter, Mr. Cool, slide down the stairs on his face like that was classic and there fore made it a bit difficult not to laugh. "You alive down there?" the stairs changed back into stairs and I walked down them with Rebby in tow, only for them to give way below our feet three steps from the top and slide down on our butts.

I looked up from the bottom of the stairs at Remus's cheeky grin as he removed his foot from the space where the top step had been. That cheeky little... He set them off on Rebby and I on purpose! "Remus!" I exclaimed, shocked.

"What can I say? It was too easy." he grinned some more, then poked the top step with his foot again and slid down to the bottom quite gracefully, standing as his feet hit the floor.

I made a point of glaring at him for the next hour and a half while the four of us waited for Sirius and Becca to finish 'The Discussion' as we had begun to refer to it. It was spoken as a capitalized word, like a title, not a generalization. We were sitting around talking in hushed tones by the fire place when we heard a door open and close up in the girls dorms. I sucked in a big breath of air and held it. There were foot steps coming towards the stairs now. The commons was empty except for the four of us, so the room was completely silent allowing for those footsteps to echo around us.

The steps stopped at the top of the stairs and everyone's eyes glued themselves to the bottom as the stairs changed to a slide. Sirius was coming down and a lot would be decided by his expression and his mood. A lot for him, a lot for Becca, and a lot for all of us, the spectators to the big event.

I was crying so hard I didn't hear them knock on the door. I didn't hear Lily and Rebby leave. I didn't hear him walk in. I just assumed that the two girls were still present, sitting on the edge of my bed, standing watch over me as usual. Rebby had always been there, ever since we were kids. Lily had been there for the last five years, since Rebby and I had met her on the train. I guess I sort of take their presence in my times of need for granted, though to be fair I haven't had many. So when I felt a hand rubbing my back gently, a soft finger wipe a tear from my cheek, a quiet voice tell me it was okay, that everything would be alright, I assumed it was one or both of them.

Of course, I assumed wrong.

I cried for a good hour, until my tear ducts were empty and I didn't have the energy to cry any longer. The person, whether it was Lily or Rebby, kept rubbing my back, occasionally giving me a hug, telling me that it would be alright and to calm down. The person was telling me that everything would be okay, and though we both knew that that wasn't true, it made me feel better just to hear the words spoken aloud.

When I had finally calmed down enough to pull my head from it's place among my now soaked pillows, I sat up and looked around. The first thing I noticed was that Lily and Rebby were both gone. The second thing was that there was a man sitting on my bed comforting me instead of either of the red headed girls.

"Sirius... You...?" I was a little stunned seeing him sitting there. Not because I hadn't expected him to be there, or because I hadn't expected my two best friends to let him in to see me, or because I didn't want to see him. It was the fact that he had been crying too that struck me most. His face was lined with tear stains, his cheek still damp from where the latest tear had made it's way down only to drop from his chin and land somewhere in the sea of covers below. "Why are you... I mean, why are you in here? How did you get in here? Where are-?"

"Lily and Rebby are downstairs with James and Remus. Lily and Rebby let me in to talk to you, to reason with you. With the state you're in now though, I wonder if maybe I should leave it until tomorrow? I don't want to just upset you further." his face was completely serious, something I've never seen before. Even when he told me about his parents, about his childhood, there was always that hint of amusement hidden in the bitter sarcasm. Not now though, now he was completely and utterly serious, as his name would imply.

"Why would they...?"

"I asked them too. Well, begged them really. I guess it was a wasted effort." Sirius paused, averting his eyes to the floor. "You're tired. Crying makes people tired. I'll go and let you sleep. We can talk tomorrow if you'll let me."

Sirius stood up and scratched the back on his neck. He gave me one last glance, then turned and began to walk towards the door. 'Stop him!' my subconscious screamed 'make him stay!'

"W-wait... Wait!" I half yelled. He stopped with his hand stretched out to the door knob. "We need to talk now... Tomorrow I'll just be pissed off again, whether I want to be or not, so we need to talk now." it was the truth too. No matter how cool I tried to keep myself, no matter how much I tried to tell myself it was nothing and brush it off, I couldn't let my anger go, and I needed to do so before someone else got hurt. We needed to talk before I hurt someone again.

Sirius walked back over and sat down on the edge of my bed again. He sat with his back hunched over, his hands clasped in his lap, his head down. "I was just walking down the hall on my way back to the dorms. She cornered me, she's been trying to do that for weeks now, and I was fed up with her, so I tried to get her to back off by acting uninterested. She didn't take the hint though, quite the opposite. It was everything I could do to keep myself from hitting her when she started insulting you. She's a woman though, so I didn't hit her, it wouldn't be very manly of me to hit a woman. She surprised me when she kissed me, that's why I didn't pull away immediately. I was in total shock that she would have the guts to just up and kiss me in the middle of the hall when I had plainly told her I was uninterested. When you came around the corner and walked up to us I thought for sure the one you would hit was me. I actually braced myself for the impact. When you hit her instead, when you blamed her, I was kind of surprised."

"I heard most of the conversation, so I knew you didn't want to kiss her." I mumbled.

"Yes, well... The reason I held you back... Well... As much as I would have loved to see her get her eyes clawed out at that point, I didn't want you to get carried away and hurt her too much, I didn't want you to get in trouble on her account. Plus, you kind of scared me... I felt like I was losing you when you attacked her like that... Like you were losing yourself..."

This statement sent a shiver down my spine. I had felt that way too just before he pulled me off of her. Again when I had attacked him earlier in the Defense classroom. Like I had no control over my actions. Like my movements were controlled by some foreign entity inside myself. "I know... What you mean... I understand..."

"Well... What about us?"

"I..." I paused... What he said made sense, but I was hesitant to take him back. I mean, he still hadn't explained the whole 'I love you' incident... Though maybe he didn't think he needed to. "I need to know how you really feel about me... I need to know if you meant it, what you said the other day..."

"About loving you?"

"Yes."

Sirius stood at the end of the slide. We couldn't see his face, it was hidden in the shadows created by his hair. His head was bowed, shoulders slumped, arms dangling uselessly at his side, he looked the part of a completely defeated man.

His body language did not bring happy thoughts to mind.

"S... Sirius?" i whispered questioningly. I don't know if he even heard me from his place by the stairs. In any case, he didn't act like he had heard me. He walked across the room, seemingly to us, but when he reached our place in the middle of the room, he passed us by and headed instead for the window.

Sirius stopped at the window. He looked out it for a minute, his back to us. James stood up and walked over to him, stopping a few steps behind him. "Sirius?" James said, repeating my one word question, only louder.

Sirius, though he had to of heard James, did not respond. Instead he reached his arm out slowly and unlatched the window, which swung open from the force of the cool wind outside. It was the beginning of winter, as was proven by the fact that it had started snowing late the night before and had neglected to stop since. Even now the light flurries flitted through the window traveling on the frigid breeze.

Sirius placed both hands on the window sill and leaned forward on them. A heavy gust of wind came through the window blowing a few loose papers around the room. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself in an attempt to block myself from the wind. Sirius did the opposite. He arched his back and tilted his head back, letting the freezing wind hit him full on.

"Sirius?" James said once again, taking another step towards him.

"James?" Sirius said lightly in response. He turned his face from the window slightly so that only James could see his expression.

James stood there momentarily, a look of confusion coming over him at first. Then the worry lines in his forehead melted away, the tightness around the corners of his mouth vanished, and his eyebrows unfurled and instead of frowning in confusion or worry, James smiled, ever so slightly, and closed his eyes. He shook his head slightly and gave a couple of silent chuckles. Though maybe i was the only one that interpreted it as this, because Rebby hopped up and walked over to Sirius.

"I'm so sorry Sirius. I was actually hoping she would listen to you. I'm so, so sorry." she said, patting him on the back and giving him a sympathetic look.

"What ever are you talking about Rebby? I'm perfectly fine. So is Becca to the best of my knowledge. At least, she seemed fine when i left her." Sirius said this and turned to face all of us with a gentle smile on his face. Very un-Sirius.

Very, ivery/i un-Sirius.

So very un-Sirius that i thought he'd gone mad at first. But then i heard steps behind me and turned around in time to see Becca walking down the stairs, a big smile plastered on her face. She was wearing her skiing coat and her big black leather boots with a pair of dark jeans and a blue sweater. In her hand she held her broom.

Wait a second... Sirius is wearing a sweater and boots as well... What's going on here?

"We're going out for a bit. We'll be going by broom and we'll be back in a few hours, a little past dinner at the latest. Our teachers think we're in the hospital wing already anyways, so we get the rest of the day off. Siri and I have decided to take advantage of that and go on a little trip. Do me a favor and feed Alasse and Hermes for me, would you Lily? Thanks."

"You ready Rebecca?" Sirius asked her, still with that gentle smile on his face. It was starting to creep me out.

"Yup. How about you? Going out in the cold on a broom in that sweater alone? And where's your broom?"

"Brooms right here." he pulled his broom out of his pocket and enlarged it to it's normal size. "iAccio coat! Accio Cloaks!/i And here is my coat-" his coat zoomed down the stairs and landed in his hand "and a cloak for each of us as well." two large black cloaks landed in his other hand. He handed her a cloak, which she put on, and kept the other for himself, putting it on over his own long black leather coat. "You know someday I'm going to get a motorbike to go with this coat. Need to save the money up for it first though..." oh, yeah, that's practical, a motorbike. What's he going to do for transportation if it rains? Imbecile.

And why the crap are they both acting so... So completely... So completely ignorant to the fact that we're all confused and that they were both incredibly upset about two hours ago? If someone doesn't explain something to me soon i might just blow a gasket.

"Well," Becca said, stepping onto the window sill with Sirius. " See you all later then." she stepped off the ledge and into space.

"Later mates." Sirius said as well, following her example.

I freaked out and dashed to the window ledge with wide eyes and a racing heart. 'Holy god they just committed lovers suicide!' was my first thought. Of course, that didn't make sense, and they had their brooms, so i looked around for them and saw two black dots some distance off over the tree line. 'Damn they're fast n those brooms.' This was my second thought and was immediately followed by 'Hey! They're breaking school rules!'

"That looked like fun. I'll have to try that someday." James said from beside me. He still had that same little smile on his face.

"What? Scaring your friends half to death by jumping out a window on the seventh floor of a castle?"

"No... But that too."

"Okay, does ianyone/i want to tell me what in the bloody ihell/i is going on here?"

"Yeah? What just happened?" Rebby chimed in.

"I think i may understand a little. The two made up, that much is obvious, but also..."

"They'll tell you when they see fit." James said. "Sirius and Becca will tell you when they feel it's the right time for you to know. For now, let celebrate the fact that those two have stopped fighting and that all man kind is now safe from the wrath of one Anabell Elizabeth Rebecca Burns."

"Here, here!" Remus agreed heartily.

"What are we cheering about?" Rach asked as she entered the commons through the portrait hole. "I have a study hall this period so i went to check on Becca and Sirius, make sure they weren't trying to finish their duel in the Infirmary or something, but they weren't there, so i thought I'd check here before i went running to the headmaster about missing students."

"Good call Rach, seeing as the two reunited lovebirds have just flown the coop." Remus replied.

"Quite literally may i add." I said.

"Where did they go? And during classes?" Rach gave us a questioning glance.

"Don't ask us," i gestured to Remus, Rebby and myself. "We don't know. Mr. Smarty-Pants-Potter here knows more than he's telling us, but he doesn't seem to feel it right and proper to spill the beans."

"Spill the beans? There are beans involved?" James asked.

"Muggle reference. Means you won't tell us what's going on." Rebby explained.

"Oh... Well then... Nope, sure won't. I don't know where exactly they went anyways, and I'm positive in know what's up though with the 'happy skippy jump out a window and fly away into the clear blue yonder with goofy grins on our faces' but I've been known to be wrong about things i was positive about before, haven't i Remus?"

"Well... There was that one time when we went to the Spanish coast and you and Sirius were positive that-"

"Stop talking before I'm forced to cut your tongue out."

"Or that time at Sirius's families boat when-"

"I'll do it Remus, i really will."

"Or when we all went to that party and Sirius and you decided that-"

"Remus..." James said warningly giving him a nice scary glare.

"Yes James?" Remus responded innocently.

"Run!" James started chasing after Remus, running through the commons like a lunatic on a rampage. He aught him after a few laps, threw him to the ground, sat on his back, and commenced the most painful and longest drawn out noogies known to mankind. When Remus stood back up, laughing and rubbing his head, his hair stood out at odd angles all over and wouldn't be tamed no matter what.

"So ithat's/i what happens to your hair every morning..." Rebby said to James.

"Nah, this is all natural babe." James winked at Rebby and pointed to his hair.

"Lily, make your boyfriend stopped flirting with me, it's creepy."

"Stop flirting with her, it's creepy." i said plainly.

"Yes ma'am!" James saluted me.

"Now get up to your room and get your books out. If we're going to skip our afternoon classes, i might as well get some transfiguration tutoring in. Hop to it! March two, three, four, hup two, three, four..." James turned and marched up to his dormitories with a flourish and a salute as he passed out of sight on the steps. "That man, someday..." i smiled and shook my head. 'someday he's going to make a great father' what i was thinking, but I'd never say that out loud. He would, though, make a good father. He knew how to make everything funny when the occasion called for it and knew when to be serious, something kids recognize with both appreciation and respect. 'Yes Potter, a fine father you will be.'

"Where to?" I asked as i landed next to Sirius in the middle of Hogsmeade.

"You'll see."

"Are we going to dinner?"

"Yes, but not here." Sirius shrank his broom and placed it in his pocket. "Your broom?" he held out his hand for my broom, and when i handed it to him he shrank it and put it into his pocket as well. "Now, just give me a second and I'll be back with the food." Sirius was gone before i could say 'Okay', off to god knows where to get some food.

Probably you're wondering what happened after i asked Sirius about the 'L' word. Well, so am i. I mean, i was there, i was conscious, it was all just a bit of a blur...

"I said i loved you Becca, and i meant it. I still mean it. The simple fact is you've somehow managed to tame the wild beast."

"The... The 'wild beast'?" i giggled a little. Only Sirius could make me laugh at such a serious moment when i was so upset.

"Oh, you know what i mean. Not to go cheesy on you or anything, but you've taken my heart and hidden it away and i can't seem to find it without you."

"Yeah... Leave the cheesy love poetry to me, you're not very good at it." i giggled again. 'But he said the 'L' word.' a little voice said in my head. "Sirius... I mean... I'm glad you like me, and that you like me that much, but i don't know if I'm comfortable with using that term..."

"What? 'Love'? But aren't you the romantic one?"

"I mean yeah but..."

"You're always going on about how grand true love is in your books, so why-"

"It's just not the same! In books, everything is fairytales, it's not true. Books are fictional. In real life that kind of love doesn't exist! I wish it did, sure, but it doesn't! In fairytales the beautiful princess gets carried away by the prince and they get married and live happily ever after, but this isn't a fairytale! This is REALITY! There are no 'happily ever after's in reality!" I was pretty worked up now. Really, i didn't want to believe anything i was saying, and i had never realized that i thought that way, but i guess the pessimist in me is greater than i thought.

"You know..." after a short silence, during which i started to cry again silently (really? What iis/i the matter with me today?), Sirius spoke quietly. "You know, i thought that too. I thought that, as long as there's so much evil in the world, as long as a father can abuse his children and innocent people can die for no reason and good people like Remus can become misunderstood monsters, how could there ever be any 'happily ever after's? Truth is, 'Happily ever after' can be interpreted differently by different people. As long as you have someone to love, and someone to love you in return, as long as you face each day and do your best, you can only ever have a 'happily ever after'. Bad things are always going to happen, no matter what, happiness is decided by how you react to those things. If you break down and give up and curse the world, the world is going to curse you back and keep on moving without you. If you look at a bad thing and see the 'silver lining', if you look at it and say 'well this sucks... ibut/i-' then there's always a chance for happiness." i blinked at this. Sirius just gave me a speech, a heartfelt speech, on how to look at the world. It was pretty deep too. I didn't know Sirius could be deep. Sirius is the shallow one with the short temper and the crappy childhood. Remus is the deep one with the book smarts and the crappy childhood. James is the occasionally deep one with the charisma and the good childhood. Peter is... Well, i don't really know much about Peter. But Sirius is not the one who is deep, he's not even the one who is occasionally deep, he's the one who cracks jokes at inappropriate moments and chases girls and starts fights. Sirius's eyes brightened, as if something had just occurred to him. "Now, get your clothes changed. Put on some warm muggle clothing and bring your coat and your broom. We're going out on a date."

"But, i, what?"

"Just get yourself together. I have something i want to show you." Sirius smirked at me kindly.

Hmmm... "Hmmm..." interesting... But wait... "So, where does this leave us?" i was confused. He hadn't asked me to take him back, he had just explained himself and used the 'L' word a lot.

"That is entirely up to you. I would love it if you'd take me back, if you feel that is incredibly impossible, then that's your choice. Honestly, right now, I'm hoping for boyfriend, just friends at least."

"Well..."

"No decisions necessary now... You've got time, plenty of time, for now we'll go with friends, maybe after our feild trip, you'll have come to a decision?"

"M-maybe..." What is going on... Who is this mild mannered, romantic, sweet man and what has he done with wild, womanizing, immature Sirius?

"Oh, looks, it's snowing again. Better dress extra warm. I'll be downstairs waiting." With that he turned and walked out of the room.

Needless to say i was a little shocked. Most of what he had said about happiness hadn't sunken in yet and we were going on a 'field trip' to a mystery place. Okay.

Somehow i managed to change into a pair of jeans, a long sleeve blue thermal with little multi colored stars on it, a brown leather belt, and a pair of fuzzy brown boots. I threw my hair into a ponytail, grabbed my ski coat, my wallet, and my broom and headed down to the commons. Sirius and i jumped out of the common room window and flew here, to Hogsmeade, so here i am, standing in the middle of Main Street waiting for my... Er... 'friend' to bring back food so that we can go to the mystery place.

This all seems a little sketchy to me, but then I've never had the ability to listen to my own common sense over my own curiosity. I felt a presence behind me and jumped as a hand descended on my shoulder.

"Sirius!"

"That's me. Sorry i startled you, I've got the food," he wiggled a picnic basket in his right hand, "now, to get there. Hold onto my arm as tight as you can and close your eyes."

"Er, why?" curious...

"You'll see, just do it. And don't let go for any reason until i tell you it's safe, okay?"

"Alright..." I grabbed his left arm and hugged it to myself, gripping as tightly as possible, closed my eyes, and waited. At first there was nothing, then i felt like i was being dragged along my Sirius's arm. I nearly slipped off having not braced myself for it, but i held onto his arm tighter instead. Then it felt like someone was trying to shove me through the neck of a bottle of soda pop, not altogether pleasant. Just when i thought i couldn't stand the overcrowded feeling any longer, it stopped and i felt the ground under my feet again.

"Okay, you can open you eyes now." Sirius said.

So, of course, i opened my eyes and looked around. The only thing i could say was "Oh... Oh my god... We're... How did we get...?"

"I thought you'd like it here." Sirius smiled at me brightly and set down the picnic basket.

"Where exactly is 'here'?" i asked, taking another look around. We were standing on top of a large rocky cliff, in front of us was a large body of water, probably the ocean. The water was a mixture of greens and bright blues and you could see all the way to the bottom in the shallower areas. There was a beach below the cliff covered in fine white and black sand. It was completely empty, which i found odd seeing as it was such a beautiful beach. The wind blew lightly, and i turned to look behind me where a large field of bright green grass was growing in every direction. The wind blew again making the grass shimmy and shake with it. I took off my coat. It was warm here, really warm. It was like one of those perfect spring days that happen so rarely, especially in England. Were we even in England anymore? We couldn't be, it was too warm. Were we in Europe? It was possible, but not probable. I turned to ask Sirius again where we were, but he wasn't standing next to me anymore. He was gone. There was a blanket laid out on the ground where he had been standing and the picnic basket was sitting on top of it. This made me a little uneasy, but then again, most everything i did with Sirius made me a little uneasy, he's just way too good at surprises for his own good. You never know what's coming from him.

I sat down on the blanket and started to unpack the food inside. Fresh baked bread, lettice, turkey meat, provolone cheese, tomato, green olives, fetta cheese, green peppers, two plates, two wine glasses, and two large cloth napkins. "Interesting..."

"Glad you find the food amusing."

"Oh! Sirius, where'd you go?"

"I just popped into the town a couple island over to pick up a few things."

"So, where exactly are we?"

"We are in Greece. We are currently sitting on a Grecian island owned by my family and only ever used once on a vacation."

"You iown/i an island?"

"Yup. Wish i could get down here more often though."

"Huh... You own an island... Of course... Why didn't i think of that... But wait, how did we get here?"

Sirius cocked his head to one side cheekily and said "Side-along apparation. I learned how this summer when my cousin Bellatrix was getting her instruction."

"They let you?"

"They hadn't a choice, i snuck in and listened, then practiced it on my own time."

"Ah..." Sounds dangerous... "So what did you get in the town?"

"A few things for lunch. Some homemade greek salad dressing, a bottle of red wine, and a bathing suit, skirt and t-shirt for you to change into."

"Er..."

"What? My family owns a Villa in the town."

"Your family needs to not be so rich." i rolled my eyes and he handed my the clothing.

"There's some bushes over there, happy changing." Sirius turned and started changing out his own thick Gryffindor sweater and undershirt for a light breezy white cotton button down. 'Oh, look, abs... Yummy... Right, changing my clothes, on it.' I turned and walked over to the bushes Sirius had pointed out and changed my clothes behind them. The bathing suit was a plain royal blue halter with bikini bottoms and i put it on underneath the light blue ankle length cotton skirt and white t-shirt Sirius had given me. 'I wonder how he knew my size...' i thought when i assessed myself. Everything fit me perfectly, even the bathing suit, which is odd because i have a really hard time finding bathing suits that fit me properly. There weren't any shoes included in the little ensemble, so i walked back to the picnic blanket barefoot carrying my heavy load of winter clothing with me.

"So whose clothes are these?"

"Ah, my cousin Nymphadora's, she a couple years behind us, but she's big for her age.

"Cool..."

"Salad? Sandwich? Glass of wine?"

I sat down on the blanket next to him and took the plate he offered me containing a half a turkey sandwich and a portion of greek salad and a glass of red wine. I ate the food and drank the wine. It was all delicious.

"So, the point of coming out here was to bribe me into taking you back?"

"Well... Partially... Is it working?"

"It already did. I was ready to take you back after you explained what happened. I just have issues with commitment..." i trailed off.

I looked up at Sirius for his reaction. He had this slightly disappointed look on his face. "Well, there goes plan A."

"What?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know just yet... Here." He held out his hand and let what was inside it drop into my hand.I held the thing up; it was a small silver chain with a little silver star hanging off of it. "It's a promise bracelet. I promise not to make you cry ever again."

"I..." wow... Since when did Sirius get all... Mushy... "Stop being all sweet and stuff, it's confusing... Next thing i know you're going to start singing to me and try to get me to dance." I rolled my eyes.

"Well, now that you mention it..."

"Don't you dare!"

"Fine, since you're going to take away all my fun, let's go swimming shall we?"

"Okay!" i smiled and followed Sirius down the path to the beach.

What? I'm a sucker for good food and presents. Of course it's got nothing to do with loving Sirius... Right?