Disclaimer: You've probably read I-don't-know-how-many chapters of this story already, but just in case you haven't got it yet - I don't own Minerva and Sirius. And Moody. And Aurors. And probably Flitwick as well (I don't remember whether he was mentioned in this chapter or not). Or anyone else.

Chapter 16: Minerva and Sirius

Moody had definitely been furious when he heard it. But in Sirius' opinion he had no right. After all, it wasn't Sirius' fault at all. Maybe only a little, but how could he have known that the others made such silly mistakes at their final exams. And even if he had known, it wasn't reasonable to expect him to give less than his best himself. And all in all it was supposed to be a good thing if you were the best of the class.

But Moody had still been furious. He had this weird belief that if Sirius was to be let onto the stand at his graduation of the Auror Academy, some certain catastrophe would follow. It was still unfair to punish Sirius for just being the best of the new generation of Aurors; it should be an honour for the best of each year to give a speech at their graduation.

And Moody had been absolutely furious; if not for anything else then the simple fact that he hadn't been powerful enough to veto the decision to give Sirius the chance to give a speech. But he had taken his revenge in the form of forcing Sirius to write his speech under his strict eyes, and then making the young man rehearse it so many times that usually their meetings ended not late at night but rather some time mid-morning.

And now Sirius was furious. Because in his honest opinion even a great Auror like Moody wasn't supposed to control his every word and movement.

And as he made his way to the podium, his newly acquired Auror Certificate in his hand and his speech so well learnt by heart that he was sure it would now never be forgotten, he was ready to show Moody that a real Auror never lets someone else tell them how to do their job.

He took the stand and smiled to the audience.

"Dear Minister, Aurors and graduates, professors and class-mates, friends and family, acquaintances and enemies, ladies and gentlemen," Sirius said, looking pointedly at Moody. He saw the older Auror flip his eyes at Sirius at the mention of 'enemies', and a few other people in the audience chuckled, but mostly no one even noticed anything being wrong.

Sirius was happy. He had got his initial goal. By the face Moody had now he was listening to every word Sirius was saying — ready to catalogue every single syllable that was different than what they had rehearsed. And that was exactly what he wanted because he was not going to change anything else in the speech.

Lull him into false security, Sirius thought to himself as his mouth moved on its own, giving the speech. See if you can trick the un-trickable.

And it was working. The audience was going into a slumber because the speech was boring, and even Moody was loosening up on listening, allowing himself a crooked smile, probably thinking that this first sentence was all that Sirius had guts to change. He already readied his hands to start clapping, for he knew that the speech was about to end, when Sirius suddenly flashed a huge smile.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, before I finish I'd like to ask something from a special person that has been extremely important in my life, and hopefully will only gain more importance after today," Sirius said, and Moody groaned infernally, cursing any and every woman that had ever dated Sirius Black.

Sirius, at the same time, took a jewellery box out of his pocket, and opened it so that every single person in the hall could see an expensive diamond ring flickering in there. Moody groaned again, but this time a little less angrily; a public proposal he could handle, after all, and even scoundrels like Black deserved to have nice memories of that day of their life.

"Will you marry me?" Black asked, again smiling courageously into the audience, and every person there was holding their breath. Moody could see that even McGonagall was covertly brushing away a tear.

But moments passed and nobody answered the question.

Then Sirius went on, not a bit flustered by the silence. "You have been there for me most of my life. You have been there to pull me back when I crossed the line. You've been there to send me to bed, and you've been there to get me out of bed. You've taught me much of life — what to do, and what not to do. I know that ever since we first met you've kept an eye on me every time we're in the same room. And asking these good people around us to be witnesses, I assure you that just like you, every time we've been in the same room I've kept one of my eyes trained on you. So now, standing here, I ask you to marry me."

There were a few sighs and happy murmurs in the audience, and people were straining their necks to see who it was Sirius was talking to.

"Will you marry me, Minerva?" Sirius asked one more time, kneeling down on the floor.

The uproar was immediate.

First and foremost Minerva McGonagall herself fainted. Then professor Flitwick shot up from his chair by her side and started ranting about beheading insolent boys. A few people laughed, some other fumed silently. Everyone was talking to someone, but no words could be heard, because Moody was the loudest of all.

"BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!" he hollered, his already distort face looking even more inhuman than usually.

But by the time that Moody managed to come up with another plan of action besides yelling, Sirius and his Auror Certificate had already long ago left the hall.

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