Chapter 14

The first Hogsmeade weekend took place the weekend before Halloween. Besides the first and second years only few students stayed at the castle. Two of the few students who stayed were Dora and Sirius Black to have their own secret date in the Room of Requirement.

Sirius had been preparing their date since early morning, organising food, pumpkin juice, butterbeer and wine from the house elves and setting up the room to his liking. Now he was waiting for Dora and it was driving him crazy. Patience had never been his strong suit and he was pacing nervously around the room.

At exactly 12 o'clock the door opened and Dora came in. Sirius stopped his pacing and stared at her. She had dressed up for their date and wore a short, tight fitting sunny yellow dress, slight make up and her long red hair fell in curls freely down her back. Over her dress she wore a warm, black cloak to ward off the chill of Hogwarts' hallways.

Now that Dora was inside the room, she took off the cloak and the fire flared in the fireplace. Sirius felt hot all of a sudden and he wasn't sure if it was because of the fire or because of Dora. She gave him an amused smile when she noticed him staring at her, apparently lost for words.

"Hello dear husband of mine. What have you got planned for today?"

"You look great, my Rose" Sirius complimented her when he finally found his voice again. "Please sit down."

He went over to the dining table set up for two in the middle of the room and pulled out a chair for her. Dora followed him and sat down at the table. Sirius served them the starters and then took the place opposite of her. In the middle of the table was a vase with a red rose and a lit candle to make it more romantic.

"Wow, you really went all out for this, didn't you?"

"I was trying to impress you. Did I manage it?"

"Maybe," she smiled. "It's a good start." Dora assured him.

The Gryffindor grinned happily. "Would you like something to drink? I have pumpkin juice, butterbeer and wine," he offered.

"You have wine? Of course you have wine," she answered her own question. Sirius was a Marauder after all.

"And it's a good wine, too. Do you want a glass?" he asked.

"Alright," Dora agreed. One glass couldn't hurt, right?

At the end of the meal they had emptied the bottle and Dora was pleasantly tipsy. They were talking and laughing animatedly and Sirius was happy his plan had worked so well. Maybe he would even get to kiss her again. He had quickly fallen in love with the redhead and now he wanted to make her finally fall in love with him, too.

They eventually moved from the table to a couch in front of the fireplace. There they sat and talked some more drinking butterbeer instead of wine now. While they sat there talking Sirius risked sliding his arm around her shoulders. Instead of pushing him off as he had expected she snuggled closer to him and leaned her head on his chest. A triumphant smile crossed his face that Dora couldn't see because she had closed her eyes, slowly falling asleep.

Sirius just sat there enjoying holding her in his arms and let her sleep. When it was time for the other students to return to the castle he had to wake her up so they could get back to their common rooms. He remembered a muggle fairytale Dora had told him, about a princess called Rose who was awakened with a kiss from a very long sleep and decided to take a chance and kiss her awake.

Dora woke up from the feeling of being kissed. It felt nice and she smiled with her eyes still closed.

"Come on Sleeping Beauty, time to wake up," she heard Sirius voice and then felt his lips on hers again.

Dora felt butterflies flutter in her stomach. She had always found Sirius attractive with his baby blue eyes, his wavy black hair and his boyish, mischievous grin and now that he had finally grown up a little and stopped bullying other students she could finally allow herself to fall in love with him.

She decided to throw caution to the wind and kissed him back. Sirius was surprised but readily deepened the kiss. When they finally stopped to breath, Dora's cheeks were tinged red with embarrassment. Her heart beat wildly in her chest and her lips still tingled.

The Ravenclaw was embarrassed but told herself that there was nothing wrong with kissing and falling in love with your own husband. It was expected really.

"Wow where did that come from?" Sirius' voice interrupted her thoughts.

"It's what married couples do, isn't it?" Dora replied.

"Yes it is and as much as I would like to continue this, it's time for us to head back to our common rooms," the Gryffindor said with a disappointed look.

"What? That late already? How long was I asleep?" the Ravenclaw asked and cast a tempus charm. It read 4.15 p.m.

"Not that long, maybe an hour," Sirius told her.

"I have to go, Sharon and Becky wanted to be back at half past four," Dora said and stood up.

"Me, too," Sirius replied and stood up as well.

"Bye," Dora said and gave the Gryffindor a peck on the cheek. Then she turned around and walked out of the room.

A wide grin spread over Sirius' face. The date had gone even better than he had expected.

Still grinning like a fool he went to the Gryffindor common room, where he found Remus and James. James was still sitting and talking with Lily so he went over to Remus.

"Hey, how was your date with that Ravenclaw prefect?" he asked and flopped down on an armchair.

"It wasn't a date," Remus instantly denied. "We are just friends."

"So noting happened?" Sirius inquired.

"No, we went to Scrivenshaft's to buy some parchment and quills, then to Honeydukes for some sweets and afterwards we went for some butterbeer to the 'Three Broomsticks', the werewolf answered.

"Sounds like a date to me. Are you really not interested in her or are you just afraid to date her because of your furry little problem?" the raven haired Gryffindor asked his friend.

"You know it would be irresponsible of me to date anyone, besides I don't think she would still like me if she knew what I am," Remus told his friend bitterly. "I'm going to dinner," he added and left Sirius alone in the common room.

Sirius good mood had diminished during his talk with Remus but was lifted again when he noticed James and Lily holding hands in another corner of the common room. He went over to them.

"Hey you two lovebirds, I assume your date was a success?" he remarked cheekily.

Lily blushed and James gave him a confidant grin. "Did you honestly doubt me? I'm hurt," he said the grin still plastered on his face.

"No, Dora has been predicting this for a while now and I'm usually inclined to believe her," Sirius replied with a grin of his own.

"She knew! She knew all along and didn't tell me!" Lily cried out in shock and outrage.

"Of course she knew, she probably knows more than is good for her," Sirius stated.

"You are right. She once told me that she knows some of the people who will die during the war and she isn't allowed to save them. 'Don't change anything,' that's the most important rule of time travel. I think it's really hard for her," Lily told the two boys.

"I don't know if I could do that. I would probably try to save them anyway," James said.

"Even if it meant that You-Know-Who would win the war?" Lily asked sharply.

"Yes, no, I don't know. I really wouldn't want to be in her shoes," James admitted.

"I'm glad Dora knows how keep a secret. I really don't want to know when I'm going to die," Sirius remarked.

"You wouldn't want her to warn you?" James asked.

"No, I'd rather not know. I'm not afraid to die but I don't want to think too much about it either. I want to live my life without a deadline hanging above my head," Sirius told them.

"But then you wouldn't have to die! If she warned you in time she could save your life!" James exclaimed.

"And what if I'll die saving someone else? If I die fighting against You-Know-Who? I'd probably decided to go anyway. James, we've decided to join the Order, didn't we? Chances are high that we are going to die fighting for the cause. If I had to choose between dying to save someone I care about and let someone else die to live, I'd choose death."

"Think about your grandparents. They died to protect all those children. And I bet they would have done exactly the same if they had known they were going to die," Sirius told his best friend.

"You are right. Hell, when did you get so mature?" James wondered.

"What's this Order you were talking about?" Lily interrupted them.

"The Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore founded it to fight against You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters. Everyone who is of age and out of school can join. Sirius and I plan to join as soon as we are out of here," James explained to his girlfriend.

"Count me in, I want to help as well," Lily said with a fierce glint in her vibrant green eyes.

"You want to fight?" James asked his girlfriend surprised. "I thought you would want to talk me out of joining the Order."

"Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't fight. I'm in Gryffindor for a reason, you know;" Lily remarked bitingly.

The rest of the year passed quickly and January brought more bad news. Voldemort had started to hunt down the members of the Order of the Phoenix but even that could not deter the Gryffindors from wanting to join.

The whole Gryffindor table was in mourning one morning when Dora came into the Great Hall for breakfast. One look at the Daily Prophet told her what had happened. On the front page was a big picture of Fabian and Gideon Prewett taken after their graduation nearly two years ago. The headline read 'Prewett twins killed by Death Eaters'.

The story was on the front page because they had fought hard for their lives and killed some of the Death Eaters that attacked them before they were killed themselves. They were labelled war heroes and martyrs by the press but Dora knew that would be cold comfort for their sister Molly – her grandmother.

She had never really met them. They had been in Gryffindor and two years ahead of her but she knew James and Sirius had liked them very much because they were all pranksters. She wanted to comfort the two boys but had to wait until after breakfast. Her relationship with Sirius was still a secret no one was supposed to know about.

July 2022

Albus Potter was sitting on his bed with a small stack of letters Aunt Hermione had given him. She had told him that Rose had gone back in time and left them some letters at Gringotts to explain what had happened to her. He had only eight of the fifteen letters left.

7th January 1978

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Al!

I know it most likely isn't Christmas for you at the moment but I don't care.

I've been married for a year now and I'm slowly falling for Sirius. He can be really romantic when he wants to be. On the first Hogsmeade weekend he invited me to a romantic candlelight dinner and on his birthday – our wedding day – he took me out to the lake on a walk in the moonlight and told me he loved me!

We spent our Christmas holidays at Potter Manor again although it wasn't as happy as last year because Dorea and Charlus were missing. I still don't know what will happen to the Manor. I suppose it will get destroyed at some point, otherwise Uncle Harry would own it now, wouldn't he?

This morning there was an article in the Daily Prophet about Fabian and Gideon Prewett – grandma's brothers. They were killed yesterday by a group of Death Eaters. I know Uncle George and his twin Fred were named after them. That means grandma must be pregnant with them right now. Isn't that weird? I haven't seen her yet though. I don't know if I should be sad or relieved about that, since she wouldn't recognise me anyway.

But I've met Andromeda and little Nymphadora. Poor girl is always tripping, stumbling or running into things. She's really extremely clumsy but also sweet and funny. She's also extremely stubborn. Little Tonks is only five but she hates her name already. She refused to listen to anything but 'Dora' no matter what her mother did or said. It's so sad Teddy and her will never really get to know each other.

I miss you all terribly. Please give Ginny, Lily, Harry, James and Teddy my best.

Love

Rose

A/N: Thanks for your reviews!