Hey guys (: Sorry for the delay, but the next chapter is here and ready to read :D

Sirius marched through the Gryffindor common room without a word to anyone. With no warning, he grabbed Mary McDonald and pulled her in for a rough, angry kiss. She didn't back away, nor did she object to the sudden affection. Instead, she kissed him back, in the exact same manner. Neither cared that the entire Gryffindor common room were watching them with mouths hanging open in shock. Sirius fought for dominance, and after a while, Mary gave in to him and let him lead the kiss. Some other girls turned their attention to other things – after all, they'd all wanted the chance of kissing Sirius Black, and it hurt to watch him kiss another girl right in front of their eyes. The kiss went on, and finally Sirius broke it, looking her in the eyes and groaning to himself. She smiled warmly up at him and leaned in for another kiss, but he pushed her away.

"I'm sorry," he said briefly as he walked off in the other direction, leaving her standing there with all eyes on her.

As he stepped through the portrait leading out of the common room, a hand grabbed him by the shoulder. He turned to see James standing there, looking irritated.

"What?" asked Sirius angrily.

"What was that all about?" James asked.

"What was what all about?"

"That kiss with Mary," prompted James. "You never mentioned you liked her."

"I don't like her," said Sirius grumpily, looking down at his feet.

"Then why did you go and get her hopes up like that?" James asked, backing against the wall to let someone out of the portrait hole. It was only after a second, he noticed it was Mary. She stopped in front of Sirius with a blush creeping into her cheeks.

"Hey Siri," she giggled, placing a hand on his face. Sirius took her hand and placed it back down by her side.

"Leave me alone," he muttered to her. "It didn't mean anything. I was just testing something out. Sorry I bothered you."

"Oh," she said, tears filling her eyes. As she turned to walk away, she looked back at him with a look of anger in her eyes, and spoke again. "Look, Sirius," she said. "You can't just do that to me. How dare you? Maybe you don't know this, but I've liked you for a really long time and when you kissed me, I thought that maybe things were changing. I thought that maybe you liked me back... and I guess the rumours are all true then!"

"What rumours?" asked Sirius blankly.

"The rumours that you don't care about anyone! You're such a player!" with that, she shoved him against the wall and ran off down the stairs. He remained silent for a moment, blinked, and turned back to face James.

"What were you saying?" he asked, as if nothing had happened. James laughed, and they both knew he wasn't laughing because he found the situation funny.

"I was saying that what you just did to her wasn't right," he said, frowning at his friend. "And I'm glad she told you what she thinks, too."

"Uh huh," said Sirius. "Now that's settled, why don't we go down for breakfast?"

"No," James said. "What were you testing on her?"

"I don't want to talk about it," said Sirius, clenching his fists. James sighed.

"Let's talk about it while we walk down to the Great Hall, then?" he asked.

"Whatever."

##

"So?" prompted James, as they walked slowly down each step leading to the Great Hall.

"I want a – no. I need a girlfriend," said Sirius. James raised his eyebrows.

"Why do you need a girlfriend? And by the way, you don't usually get girlfriends by kissing them and then telling them it means nothing..."

"I know, I know," said Sirius, rolling his eyes. "It's just that I've never kissed a girl before... I wanted to make sure it felt right. I need a girlfriend to get over this mess I've got myself in."

"Well, you've gone the wrong way about it," said James. "Do you want my advice?"

"No. But you'll give me it anyway, so I'm listening," Sirius said, looking at James, who grinned.

"You know me too well," he said. "Right, so you wanted to know if it felt right kissing a girl? It's not about that. It'll feel right when you're with someone you really like – no matter their gender. I think you should find a girl that you like, get to know her, go on a few dates... then try kissing her. If it feels right, then why not stick with her? If it doesn't feel right, I'm sure she'll understand – after all, you'd be testing it out in a much politer way..."

"You know, I think you're right," Sirius said, his face lighting up a bit.

"I'm always right," James replied happily. "So, are there any girls you like?"

"Um... not that I know of," complained Sirius, scanning the Great Hall.

"Ok then," James said. "How about personalities? Any girls that you think have nice personalities?"

"No. I don't usually talk to girls. Apart from Alice and Lily... Alice is taken and Lily is a bitch – no offence," Sirius added with a cheeky grin.

"None taken. She's a bitch to me too and that's why I love her," James said, gazing off into the distance. Sirius clicked his fingers in front of James' face, breaking him out of his mini trance.

"Earth to James," he said.

"Oh right. Well, Ok... how about any girls you think are good-looking? Start with that, and then get to know their personalities," James said.

"Well, there's Marlene," Sirius said, lowering his voice as he reached the Gryffindor table. James lowered his voice as well, realising that Marlene was only seats away.

"Well, there you go," James said. "She's smoking hot, and she's got a great personality too. Go for it."

"You think I should go for it?" asked Sirius uncertainly, looking at Marlene warily. "What if she doesn't want to?"

"Every girl in this school wants to go out with you," James said rolling his eyes. "She'll jump at the chance."

"You think?"

"Yes," said James, laughing at how oblivious Sirius was to this common fact. Sirius nodded, taking a drink from the cup on the table.

"I'll speak to her later," he said. "Thanks, James."

"No problem. You know me with the girls," he winked. "I'm an expert."

"Yeah... and how many girls have you kissed? Er... let's see... none," Sirius said, with a triumphant smile. James subtly hit Sirius with a bread stick.

"I'm saving my first kiss for a certain gorgeous red-head," he said in a dreamy voice, letting his eyes fall on Lily. She obviously noticed, and while her face reddened, her expression hardened.

"And what are you staring at?" she asked angrily.

"Your beautiful face," answered James. Lily smiled, and when realising what she was doing, coughed.

"Well," she said briskly. "Stop that."

"Uh huh," James said with a grin. He turned to Sirius, who rolled his eyes.

"You love-sick loser," he said, flinching when a bread stick hit him on the head. He was aware that two people took their places at the table, and he was pretty sure who they were. When he looked up, he was right. He cleared his throat.

"Hey Pete," he said.

"Hey," Peter replied. Sirius looked at Remus, who seemed to be avoiding eye contact with him.

"Hi Remus," he said hopefully. Remus looked up and put on a clearly fake smile.

"Hey Sirius," he said, gritting his teeth. "You'd better not have said anything to do with what we were talking about last-"

"- I didn't," said Sirius. Remus let out a deep breath and nodded. The awkward silence that followed, seemed to last forever, but Sirius stopped noticing it when he felt his heart clench in his chest. He tore his eyes away from the person he'd just seen entering the Great Hall.

"Hey Sirius, breathe," James said from beside him.

"Huh?" asked Sirius blankly.

"You're not breathing."

"Oh," said Sirius.

"I know you're upset," James whispered.

"About what?" asked Sirius, pretending not to know what James was talking about.

"I saw him walk in too, you know? And you stopped breathing at that very moment."

"Who?" Peter asked curiously. Remus rolled his eyes.

"His ex... you know... his brother," he sneered. Peter, James and Sirius all looked at Remus questioningly.

"What?" exclaimed Remus. "It's completely wrong. It shouldn't have happened, and you know what? If it hadn't happened, then maybe we'd all be happier..."

"Rem? You're not still upset over-"

"- No. I just don't want to hear all about how you're hurting over it. It's your own damned fault for falling for your brother," said Remus.

"Why are you being so nasty to him?" asked James. "You were supportive yesterday..."

Remus clenched his fists under the table. "Only because he's not very supportive of me."

"Oh, c'mon Remus," said Sirius. "That's different and you know it!"

"I don't want to talk about it," said Remus.

"Well it seems like you do."

"Not here," said Remus. "When Peter and James are right here at the table."

Sirius grinned. "Hey James?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever considered – I mean – Do you ever – Are you gay?" Sirius asked, looking directly at Remus while he said it. James looked confused, but answered anyway.

"No," he said. "Why..?"

"No reason," shrugged Sirius.

"But there's a possibility that you could be, isn't there?" Remus asked James hopefully. James shook his head briskly, grinning.

"No way," he said. "I'm in love with Lily. End of. Will you guys explain why you're asking me these questions?"

Nobody replied to him, but Sirius just looked at Remus meaningfully. Remus was looking down with a sad expression. He looked up quickly, and with a small smile, he stood up.

"I'm going to Arithmancy," he said. "See you all later."

"Bye," said James and Peter simultaneously, as Remus walked away.

"What was that all about?" whispered James.

"Don't worry about it," Sirius said. "I was just... well... just don't worry."

"Er... Ok then," said James. "We should probably get going. We have Divination."

"Yay," said Peter sarcastically as they all made their way to the stuffy classroom.

##

Sirius jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder and realised that it was Professor Winters – his Divination teacher. Sirius put on a goofy grin.

"Hey, Professor," he said.

"You were sleeping," stated the professor.

"Ah, sorry," said Sirius.

"Have you seen anything in the crystal ball?" asked Professor Winters.

"No," groaned Sirius. Professor Winters sighed and sat down next to him.

"Let us have a look, shall we?" he said, gazing into the crystal orb with a ridiculously mystical expression on his face. He tutted to himself and looked at Sirius in sympathy. "It is what I feared," he said.

"The Grim?" asked Sirius uninterestedly. Every lesson was the same, and although Professor seemed to get extremely worried about the death omen appearing in Sirius' crystal ball, Sirius knew that he was either making it up, or that he was simply seeing Sirius' animagus form.

"But how did you know?" asked Professor Winters in amazement.

"Just a lucky guess," said Sirius.

"Your inner eye is clearly being awakened, my dear boy," said Professor Winters. "Please, take another look."

"If you insist," Sirius said, peering into the crystal ball. He nearly jumped out of his seat when the foggy mist in the ball cleared and he actually saw something.

His eyes widened as he tried to make out the scene he was watching. There was an outline of a person, in a wispy black liquid, running. The person came to a halt at a road with two paths leading off in different directions. On one road, there was his house... a familiar place that he'd been to before. The other road led to a place he'd never been before, which was intriguing. The person had to make a decision quickly, before somebody else came along and made his mind up for him, and the lightning overhead was driving him crazy. The person ran in the direction of his house, only to find it already occupied. He ran back as fast as he could, but lightning blocked his path. He fell to his knees, letting tears fall at the setback, when suddenly an outline of a stag appeared in his vision. The lightning ceased, and the person followed the stag to where it was leading him; to the direction of the new place he'd never been before. The person nodded to the stag and headed off in the other direction.

Sirius was pulled out of his vision when he realized what it was symbolising. He was the person. The road with that familiar place symbolised Remus, and the other road that led to a new place symbolised Marlene. The lightning symbolised Regulus, and the stag was, of course, James. The entire vision represented the decision he was trying to make. He knew that he needed to try taking a new path to get away from the pain of the breakup with both Remus and Regulus.

"Sirius... you Ok?" asked Peter worriedly. Sirius nodded, explaining to the teacher what he'd just seen. Professor Winters nodded and finally laughed.

"When do you kids ever learn? You can not just make up 'pretend' visions. That is not the way the inner eye works." With that, he walked off to another table.

"Seriously," said Sirius after Professor Winters had left. "I really saw that."

"I believe you," said James. "And I know what it means. Like I said this morning, go for it."

Sirius nodded. "I think it's the right thing to do."

##

Walking down to the tree by the lake was much more difficult than usual for Sirius. His head was filled with so many hopes and doubts; he felt like his head would implode. He could just make out Marlene sitting down by the lake with her friend from Ravenclaw, Joanne Knight. Taking a deep breath, he strode over to her and cleared his throat.

"Marlene," he said, and she turned to face him.

"Oh hey, Sirius," she said.

"Can I speak to you?" he asked nervously. She stood up and nodded.

"I'll be back in a minute, Jo," she said to her friend. "What's up?" she asked. Sirius led her behind the tree, growing more and more nervous with every second. She was truly beautiful. How could he ever expect her to say yes? But then again, James had said that every girl would go out with him...

"I just wanted to ask you... well, you know there's a Hogsmeade weekend coming up next Saturday?"

"Yeah," she said, a smile growing on her face. Sirius found himself unable to speak. Her bluish-grey eyes were mesmerizing.

"I was just-"

"- Sirius?" she said, eyebrows raised. "Sirius Black? Nervous?"

"Not really... I er..."

She leaned up so that her mouth was close to Sirius' ear and spoke in a low, and – what Sirius believed to be – sexy voice;

"I'd love to go to Hogsmeade with you, Sirius."

"Y-you would?" Sirius asked in disbelief. "But how did you know what I was-"

"- Experience," she said, winking. "I'll meet you outside the Great Hall on Saturday morning."

"Ok..." said Sirius, watching after her as she walked back over to her friend. "Bye," he whispered, even though she obviously couldn't hear him.

##

As he walked back up to the castle, he should have felt happy about what he'd managed – or not managed, in this case – to do. He had a date with a gorgeous girl, but he still couldn't bring himself to smile. She was overwhelming. He wasn't sure if he liked that. Sirius liked to be the one in control, and this didn't feel that way. When he was with Remus, he was definitely in control, and he felt so much more comfortable that way. When he was with Regulus, he was mainly in control, and that had worked out just fine. And thinking of them, just flooded back the feelings he'd been trying to suppress. He really wasn't sure if having a girlfriend would make those feelings go away, but he could try, couldn't he?

Every time he saw Remus, a wave of protectiveness washed over him and he didn't want to see him get hurt. Every time he saw Regulus, he felt a pang in his heart from all of the pain Regulus had caused him. Didn't that mean that somewhere, he still had feelings for the both of them? Sirius wished – especially at that moment – that his life could be as easy and simple as James'. All James wanted was one person. There were no mixed feelings, no questions, no painful memories. He sighed as he entered the castle and headed towards his next lesson with more questions running through his head than before.

##