Word Count: 392

Warning: Off Screen Murder, Grief.

Easter Egg: Abstract Egg, Day: 28. Marlene McKinnon

Unexpected

She'd never expected to date Sirius. Sure, they'd flirted over the years, and they'd even hooked up a few times at parties in the Common Room in their last year at Hogwarts, but she'd never expected him to ask her on a real date.

Now, countless dates in, and they were a real couple and it was weird.

Good-weird, but still weird.

Leaving the Leaky Cauldron, she pressed a kiss to his lips and then pushed him away gently. She laughed as he whined about her not going home with him, but she'd promised her mother than she'd visit for the weekend, and not even a night with Sirius was enough to make her break a promise to her mother.

"You can come for dinner on Sunday," she promised, leaning in for another kiss. "It's about time you met my parents formally anyway."

"I… am not good at parents," Sirius admitted.

Though she'd never tell him, the worried look on his face was adorable. "You'll do fine. My parents are just normal people, Sirius. They're not…" She shrugged helplessly, not sure how to tell him that they weren't nuts like his own mother.

The wry grin he gave her told her that he understood.

"Fine," he grumbled playfully. "I'll see you on Sunday. I love you."

"I love you too."

…

"Marls?"

As soon as she heard his voice, the tears that she'd so far held back fell down her cheeks. She stumbled into his arms and sobbed into his shirt.

He wrapped her up in his arms, one large, comforting hand stroking her back, as the other gently cupped the back of her head, holding her steady against him.

"I'm so sorry, baby," he whispered.

Around them, people moved around the ruins of her parents house. She didn't care what they were doing, she just couldn't bring herself to look at them.

"Can we go to yours?" she asked through her sobs.

"We're going to go to James and Lily's," he replied. "I thought you might need her."

"I just want you."

She felt Sirius startle, and then his arms tightened. "Okay, baby, whatever you want. I'll take you home."

"They're gone, Sirius. They're gone."

He held her and Apparated them away from the house she'd grown up in, keeping her safe.

Her family was gone.

But she still had Sirius.