This one goes out to Gilisette, graciegirl1000, xbamsod, Hufflepuff Hex, and ClaireWhitlock, plus all of those previously mentioned. You're all pretty awesome, you know that?
As you might have noticed, I did change the name. The fic is now called Breaking Free, Colors in Hand in reference to the last chapter. Do you like it? Do you not like it? Why or why not?
Playlist: In Noctem
Hesitate – Steve Moakler
Somewhere Over the Rainbow – Jason Castro
October was coming to an end, Halloween right on us. My time was spent lazily, slow in its gentle drift. As it was, I did ask Bianca out that day, and a week later, we had gone to Hogsmeade via the Honeydukes cellar. We'd strolled down the deserted lanes well after curfew, walked the cobbled streets, talking quietly. There was no hurry, nothing rushing us, nothing waiting for us until the next morning. We climbed up a mountain of sorts, just to see what was there. And stumbled upon a little cave.
It wasn't perfect, by any means, but it was our little place, we decided. I cleaned it up as best as I could, ridding the perfectly round, dark bubble of dirt and cobwebs, and everything else living inside it. Bianca lit up the place with candles she transfigured out of pencils.
I'd asked her about it, of course. Her answer, though not normal, had not surprised me once I'd heard it.
"It's a thing Brad and I do. Bradley honestly enjoys living like a muggle, and from the time I was thirteen, he's been trying to convince me that I should give it a shot. He sends me muggle objects sometimes, things he likes. Sometimes, he finds depth in trivial things and he'd share them with me. Last year, when I was at St. Peters, I received a bunch of pencils, set up like a bouquet. Brad loves pencils, I honestly don't know why, though he's tried to explain it to me. He's sent me so many that they form a four tier blanket on the bottom of my trunk."
Another sibling thing, I thought to myself. It was the kind of thing that I wish Regulus and I could have had. Life was so much simpler without Voldemort, I thought grimly.
And after that, we got to decorating the desolate little sphere, with – what else? – A thick red carpet and cushions (mine never seemed the perfect size or shape, but the coloring was excellent, if I did so myself) of various colors. Quite often Bianca would change the color of some of my cushions because 'they didn't match' the rest of the cave. It was such a feminine thing to say, that I laughed out loud. Of course, this offended Bianca to no end, and we ended up having a massive pillow – cushion? – fight, right there in the middle of the softly lit cave.
To leave her mark, Bianca burned her initials, B.L.H, into one of the corners in an elegant cursive, where it was hidden. Curious again, I asked her why she didn't leave her signature somewhere more conspicuous, claiming the place to herself.
She responded, "This way, we know that this is our little orb, it's our little secret. If anybody else does reach this place by mistake, they'll hopefully just leave, knowing that this place is taken. But openly scribbling my initials somewhere, just to mark my territory; it feels more flaunting, than truly intimate. Can you understand that?" She asked, and I nodded.
"One more." I said to her.
She gestured that I should go on.
"What does the L stand for?"
She laughed, shaking her head. "No way am I telling you that, Sirius. My initials clash horribly. Honestly, B – L – H? What were my parents thinking?"
"Oh, you're alright, Bianca. Think of me! Mine are S.O.B." She raised an eyebrow. "Sirius Orion Black. I try my hardest not to expand that in the way it's commonly used today."
"What?" She said, confused for a bit.
"You're a clever girl, you'll figure it out." I muttered, taking her hand.
"Oh. Oh!" She giggled. "Son-of-a-bitch?"
I grimaced.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. It slipped out." She said, turning my face towards her own, her fingers soft on my jaw.
"Don't worry about it, Celtic Thunder. I was only reacting because of how close you got. I don't really like to call my mother names, but on my worse days, it does come out. Besides, you said it yourself, I share quite a few personality traits with man's best friend. I don't mind." I told her firmly.
"If you say so, Briton. But be careful. If I find the slightest hint of you having been offended, I will shove a pound of chocolate down your throat. You know I don't like it if people don't come out and tell me exactly how they feel. Of course, you were an exception. Were being the operative word here. Once. Don't forget, Black. You can only make a mistake once."
"Yes, ma'am." I snapped a military salute at her, and she dissolved into a fit of giggles.
When we stepped out – about three in the morning – the entire place looked happier than when we had found it. One last look at the bright, happy place; a last glance at the initials burned in the corner, was all I allowed myself before I extinguished the candles. In a moment of prophesying, I realized that this place would come to be our little haven, where no one, not even house elves, could intrude. The niche in the castle was fun, too, to think, to dream, to be, but this. This was something truly special. Not a place to be alone, but a place to be together.
"Let's name it." Bianca said, her face lit up like a billboard at the sudden new idea. I was in the process of growing an orchid vine across the edge.
"Orchideous." I muttered, dragging my wand in a diagonal line, pulling the vine out of the end of my wand.
"Crescere Rosa." An incantation we'd found, James and I. It was fairly easy to create charms and jinxes, as long as you got the right pronunciation of the Latin involved. Wild roses began to grow uncontrollably, highlighting the orchids.
"Facere Flavus." She said, touching one of the roses. Instantly, the entire vine changed, and the flowers were all bright yellow. It must be a female thing, decorating. The yellow roses accentuated the orchids far better, I acknowledged.
In a stroke of genius, Bianca began to enchant the lip of the cave to grow more vines – in complementary colors, of course – hiding the place a little more. She refused to put a charm, hex, or jinx on it. I thought I knew why she refused to magick it, but I refrained from voicing my question.
"Limen Flores." She decided.
"What?"
"Let's call the place, Limen Flores."
"Home of Flowers?" I asked, translating with difficulty. I hadn't been the best at Latin while I'd been learning it. I was okay at it, but not great. I ran over the translation in my head. It was obvious, but fitting. It sounded better in Latin, though.
"Threshold of Flowers." She corrected. Well, that made it sound more grandiose, even in plain English.
"Limen Flores." I let the words slide over my tongue. A place to call my own. I smiled. "Limen Flores it is."
When we reached the castle, it was about four in the morning. Tired, but extremely happy, I trudged up to the dormitory. I fell into my bed, just barely managing to take off my shoes and jacket, and miraculously, my t-shirt as well.
I had only just entered the realm of a deep sleep, when I was woken up by a persistent tapping to the side of my head.
"Wake up, wake up, wake up!" A feminine voice chanted. I opened one bleary eye, and saw a curtain of dark hair in front of my face.
"Bianca?" I checked my watch. I had been asleep for about ten minutes.
"I kept you all night long, so I expect I'm first."
"First for what?" I asked, still groggy.
"Happy birthday, Sirius!" She sang. "First for that." She said, and handed me a pouch.
"It wasn't a secret, really, but what good is a gift if it isn't a surprise?" She said, referring to the day we'd gone to Hogsmeade.
"Thanks." I grinned at her, weighing the pouch in my hands.
"Always. Do you want to open it now?" She asked eagerly.
"Do you want me to open it now?" I returned.
"Of course I do, fool! Open it!" She said, poking my bare chest. Though she intended for it to be painful, it had a very different effect on me. I didn't think I'd be able to sleep if I tried after that.
"Look what you did!" I said, pointing to my chest. "You've actually given me a mark!" I stared at the angry-looking red mark on the right side of my chest. I swallowed a volley of laughs as her face turned bright red.
I couldn't help but to let one escape, though. Calling me on it, she said, "Shut up and open it, Sirius."
Trailing her fingers over the fading red mark over and over again, she gazed expectantly at me, waiting for me to open the present. As it turned out, I was a little distracted by her fingers splayed over my chest…and I forgot about the present in my hand, just staring at the hand that was melting my internal organs slowly.
She flicked my ear suddenly. "Open it!"
Chuckling at her petulant tone, I pulled at the cord and shook out the contents of the bag.
One might argue that the gift would have been better had I presented it to her, but I'll never truly be able to explain how much I appreciated that she understood me the way she did.
A silver band had fallen out of the pouch, one that reminded me distinctly of the one that Bianca's brother wore around his finger. But while his had brilliant emeralds in it, mine had blood red rubies, flattened so they looked like a part of the silver itself.
"It's in the family. Our great grandma told us to give it to someone we really cared about." There was something she was editing, but I let it go. I twirled the ring between my fingers and noticed an inscription. "L'argento é per la libertá, e il rosso è per l'amore."
"My family crest is in French, love. I only know French and Latin."
"Well half my family is Italian. I love the language and the people. I love the culture. And so Italian it had to be for you."
"So what does it say?"
"Something I've been meaning to tell you for a very long time, but now's not the time for you to hear it."
I let it go and grinned. "Thanks, Bianca." And just to prove that Padfoot was still there, over Sappy Sirius who'd made a surprise entrance, I kissed her.
It was not a magical, brilliant, moving kiss. It was not a first kiss. It was not tender. It was not full of affection. What it was was a flirty, very happy kiss. I'd actually expected a little shock, maybe a little resistance from her – her being the spitfire she was. What I did not expect was for her to grab a hold of my shoulders to pull herself closer to me.
Without breaking contact, she swung up from beside me to straddle my lap. Her lips automatically shaped themselves around my own. When she broke away to take a breath, I caught her mouth open. Groaning, she melted back onto my form so that her chest was flush with mine. Of course, this was making me very aware of my bare-chested-ness. Especially when Bianca trailed her hand down my chest for support.
"You do know that this is very, very inappropriate?" She asked me. "I'm a very good girl, you know. I never break rules." She ran a hand through my hair. "And I certainly never sneak into boys' dormitories in the middle of the night. What are you doing to me, Sirius Black? I'm usually a very good girl."
I groaned. "Please stop saying that, Bianca. You're putting images in my mind that have no business being there, especially not when you're sitting right on top of me."
It was only when she grinned that I realized that she was doing it on purpose.
The door flung of the dormitory flung open with a bang.
"Oi!" James interrupted. "Banging later, presents first." He said unabashedly. How did I not notice he wasn't in his bed?
"Bet you forget your own rules when it comes to a certain girl name after a flower." I winked.
"Oh, sod off. Do you want to see what we've given you, or not?"
"I'm coming, I'm coming." I told him. I pulled a t-shirt over my head and followed James and Bianca.
"Mate, that's the lady's prerogative." He laughed.
While Bianca looked greatly confused, James and I both doubled over laughing.
"Happy birthday, man. We have now begun the celebration of the beginning of your eighteenth year appropriately, with a dirty joke."
"Thanks so much, Prongs." I pushed him down the stairs. Lily, along with the Spanish sisters stood beside Remus and Peter, all huddled around a small pile of presents.
"Happy birthday, Sirius!" Lily threw her arms around me. "I hate the fact that you're older than me. I should be the pampered one, and yet, you somehow snagged my right." She screwed up her nose.
"Thanks, LilyPotter." I grinned at her. She swatted my shoulder.
"Here. Open it." She threw me a wrapped present. I ripped the cover off, and saw that her present was a folded blanket in the usual Gryffindor colors. The words Marauder with the largest head, and possibly heart were stamped in gleaming gold across it.
"Lily, I'm starting to think you actually like me!" She laughed.
"Ours next." Said Sienna.
"Yes, I do need to get back to the Ravenclaw dorm, you know?"
Their present to me was a muggle camera.
"Oh, thank you, girls! I've been wanting one of these!" I exclaimed. We'd been studying cameras in muggle studies, and I found that I was intrigued by the idea. I immediately took a candid picture of the entire group.
"Anytime." Sierra winked at me before departing for her own dorm.
"Okay, Sirius, are you ready for the most epic gift ever? It's from all three of us." James told me, pointing towards himself, Remus, and Peter.
They separated, and I was pretty sure they'd broken a few rules getting this in. I'm not joking. It. Was. A. Bike. One of those muggle contraptions, like a broom on wheels? Yeah, that thing.
"How the hell did you get this thing in here?" I asked, shocked.
"Room of requirement, bribed Peeves, and a disillusionment spell. Admit it, Padfoot, we're pretty great."
"I concede!" I said, still in shock.
"Well," said James in business mode now, "Reducio!" And my gleaming, jet black bike reduced in size, to about three inches wide and an inch high. "Vee here'll take this back to my place." He offered my owl a treat.
"Wow." I said. "So which one of you knows how to ride it?" I asked, stumping them with my trademark smirk.
"Mine next." Bianca said with a soft smile.
I'd never be able to use it, but what she'd given me had to have been one of the best presents I'd ever received.
It was a notebook about the size of half my palm that flipped itself open magically. It had geometric shapes all stamped across it, shimmering in the light, shimmering different colors. There were vibrant blues and purples, lots of yellows, and one long streak of silver. I understood it for what it was, and I'd never appreciated anything as much as I'd cherished that little book right then.
When I touched the pages of the notebook, they all went blank, except for the first one.
It said, "You can color it all as you want. I just hope I'm one of the colors in your book. B." The words did not fade like other spells, but remained firmly embossed on the paper, softly gleaming in the candle light. I smiled. How very philosophical, kind of sappy actually. This was me we were talking about.
"I'd say, all in all, that this has been a very successful beginning to the day." James announced.
"I agree, Prongs. It's a shame the full moon's tomorrow, though. We could've had some fun tonight if I was born a day late." I said, grinning.
*ducks-to-avoid-projectile* Yeah, I know, I'm really late, but this thing just would not go the way I wanted it to. Then some shit at home…don't want to think about all that. Just, I hope you like it, and reviews make me happy.
R.