A.N. Hello to all.
Again I'm so so sorry that it was such an enormous wait until this latest chapter. I know I know it's been over half a year since I updated this. Again I'm sorry, I do hope you all are still interested in this.
I'll let you get to the fanfiction and finish this at the end.

~Chapter 17~

Two days before New Year's the Marauders and Lily returned to Hogwarts. Once together they all thanked and awed at the gifts they received, Severus made sure to give Lily a big hug for the set of vials, which she returned for her bracelet.

The biggest excited squee had to be Lily's when Hermione and Ginny decided to tell her about the Magical Rose that was secretly given to Alex. The three girls went on and on about how romantic it was and were wondering who it could have been. Alex already had a feeling who it was but didn't know why he would.

The witch snuck a glance over to the wizard in question, Sirius was talking to James about something. He paused for a moment and looked over his eyes meeting Alex's. Alex quickly looked away flustered, shaking her head lightly to get rid of the thoughts about Sirius and the rose.

For their New Year's party, after talk with Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall, they had it in the Head's Common Room. They were to stay there and not roam the halls, extra pillows and blankets were sent up along with snacks and drinks.

The group decided to dress up a little, while bringing pajamas for later.

Alex wore a simple black dress which had a corseted top. Ginny wore a dark green tube dress that went down to mid-thigh. Lily wore a white open back dress that went to her knees. And Hermione wore an antique golden dress which was a halter top and flowed to her knees.

The guys each wore dress shirts and black pants, Lucius had an emerald green which had silver accents, Severus had a dark forest green, Remus had a golden brown, for Peter it was a grey shirt, Sirius had a plain black shirt which he rolled the sleeves up and top buttons undone, finally James had a deep red shirt.

The four girls set up the WWN and put it on to one of the dance channels and moved the couches to the side of the room making room to dance.

James was the first guy to join the girls as they dances, he went straight for Lily. Lucius came up next along with Severus. Lucius went up behind Alex while placing his hands upon her waist, he smirked at her startled jump. "I see you're wearing my gift." The blonde whispered into her ear.

"I did say I was going to look for an outfit to wear with it." She pointed out to him as she looked down at the snake which was resting around her wrist.

"And it's a very nice outfit," Lucius said as he brought his head down to the girls neck and brushed his lips upon it. Alex smirked at the action and gracefully twirled out of his grip. She easily moved across the floor to Hermione who was trying to get Remus to dance with her. The poor werewolf was bright red and mumbling. Alex grabbed her friends hand and smiled at Remus. "I'm borrowing her for a bit." Hermione opened her mouth to protest but was pulled before she could say anything.

"Come on, Mione, dance with me." Alex feigned whined, but it lost its effect with the giggles that followed. Hermione shook her head lightly at her friend's antics and then proceed to pull Lily and Ginny into their dance also.

"Just let your body do the dancing, don't think about it Lily," Ginny said to her fellow red head, who looked at her.

"Easy for you to say, seriously where did you learn those moves from the Halloween Ball?" Lily responded, "I don't think I've seen Severus blush that much." The girls all giggled at the memory of Ginny dancing around the dark haired boy and his face becoming bright red under the half skull mask he wore.

"Besides Ginny's amazing dancing skills, I think I know who sent me the rose." Alex whispered. The three witches looked to her surprised.

"Really? Who do you think did?" Ginny asked quickly, now understanding why Alex pulled all of them together to dance.

"Isn't it obvious?" Lily said giggling lightly. She rolled her green eyes at the looks that Ginny and Hermione gave her. "It was Sirius." She said softly to them, Alex nodded her agreement, her eyes looking a little sad.

"Well, I guess that would make sense actually," Hermione said nodding, "I mean he's being trying to make up with you ever since the incident, and Circe knows he's terrible with talking about stuff like that."

"I still think he should have trusted me more," Alex said softly.

"But you still have feelings for him, pretty strong ones at that." The brunette said, her friend paused at that. "Alex, when a Magical Rose only starts to bloom when the receiver's feelings are mutual to that of the givers."

Alex opened her mouth to deny it but Lucius came up behind the girls when he noticed Alex's pause and knew something was up. The dark haired witch saw him and quickly excused herself to the bathroom not wanting to deal with any male's attentions. As she passed Sirius he noticed that there was something wrong and once she was up the stairs and in Lily's room he turned on Lucius and the girls.

"What happened?" He said growling at them.

"Nothing," Lily responded quickly, "We were just talking girl stuff, nothing for you to concern yourself with."

"Bullshit!" Sirius just about yelled, which brought the other guys over. "There is something else going I know there, she seemed almost scared." His voiced lowered at the last part. The three girls looked at each other, they wanted to say something but wouldn't for Alex.

"I'm sorry, Sirius, I can't tell…." Hermione began to say to Sirius but was interrupted by Alex's Border Collie from next to her nudging her saying it was okay to say something, before she went and laid by the fire.

The brunette sighed, "We were talking about the Magical Rose that Alex got for Christmas," All eyes turned to her. "She left because she was confused when I told her that when a Magical Rose blooms it's only because the receiver has mutual feelings to the sender."

Sirius stood there shocked for a while, trying to process what Hermione just told him. "The Rose bloomed?" He said softly,

"It started to but we didn't get to see how far because she put it down." Ginny said looking at her friend lying in front of the fire.

"Wait, you gave her that flower?" Lucius said, his light grey eyes narrowing dangerously.

"So what if I did," Sirius growled, glaring at the Slytherin, "I'm allowed to give her whatever I want.

"Ha, as if," Lucius retorted, "You immediately distrusted her, even when she tried to tell you the truth. You ignored her completely. She didn't want to kiss me in the hallway but because of the mistletoe she had to, even then I was the one who kissed her." The blonde glared.

"I know," Sirius said he looked quite pale as he fell back into a chair. "It was stupid to ever distrust her and I wish I could take it back." The dark haired boy buried his face in his hands, "I've never had to deal with this shit before I was scared okay." He growled out softly.

"Enough," A voice rang out, everyone turned to see Alex back in her human form. Her face was streaked with tears. "Please this is a party we should be having fun," she said softly, "Also it's getting close to midnight." Hermione moved over to her friend, worried.

"I'm fine 'Mione," She smiled softly, but it didn't seem to reach her eyes. Hermione nodded anyway, somehow knowing that Alex didn't want to talk about it anymore. With a wave of her wand Alex started the radio up again filling the room with music once more.

A soft song played through the room and each guy grabbed their girl for a dance. Lucius held out a hand to Alex, who hesitantly took it. With a sigh, she rested her forehead on the Slytherin's shoulder as they swayed softly.

No one said anything until Hermione pointed out they were a minute till midnight and the group watched excitedly as the clock ticked closer.

"10!" They started counting down, "9!" Lily unconsciously leaned closer to James, "8!" Hermione looked up at Remus, "7!" Ginny nuzzled against Severus, "6!" Lucius wrapped his arm around Alex's waist, "5!" Sirius stood up from his chair, "4! 3!" Excitement buzzed through the room, "2!" The four guys pulled their girls closer, "1!" Each guy moved closer smiling happily.

"Happy New Year!" Everyone cheered, the guys pulled their girls in for kisses. All except Lucius, at the last second Sirius grabbed hold of Alex's arm and pulled her away and on the 'Happy New Year' was kissing her with every bit of passion he could, which was quite a bit.

When the two pulled apart everyone in the room was staring, but neither of the two noticed anything.

"Sirius?" Alex said shocked, a blush spreading across her face, Sirius smiled softly at her.

A.N. Hey there again sorry about not updating in a while, I'm quite surprised it's been more than half a year since I updated. I promise you all I have not forgotten about this fiction. My computer was being a complete butt these past few months I couldn't access anything on it so I couldn't type anything. I just now finally got all of my stuff off of my computer and restored it completely.
Anyway I still have been writing more for this I have up to chapter 19 and a bit of 20 someone asked if I was gonna continue after they return home and yes I am going to, I have so much I wanna write for this so I just couldn't stop with that.

Again sorry for the delay and I hope I'll have the next chapter up soon. Also thank you for sticking around. Lots of love for you all! 3