WARNING: Mild violence, language, and scenes of a mild sexual nature in this chapter.

Disclaimer: Every recognizable character, idea, event, place, etc. belongs to JK Rowling. I own nothing.

Author's Note at the end.

…

When Luna woke up, her first thought was that she was exceptionally comfortable. She was warm, the fireplace was crackling, and the blanket that was wrapped around her smelled so good she was burying her nose into it. It took her a few minutes to remember that the previous night she had fallen asleep in a storage closet. She should not have a blanket around her, cushions below her, or a fireplace beside her.

She sat up immediately and glanced around. With a sigh came the realization that Sirius must have brought her up here. How positively sweet of him. Her smile turned into a scowl. Angrily, she got up, crumpled the blanket in her arms and marched straight up the staircase to the seventh year boy's dormitory.

Reaching out a hand, she shoved the door open. All of the curtains around all of the beds were drawn shut. From behind one set of curtains, she heard an obnoxious snoring and assumed it was Peter. Next, on the bedside table of the second bed lay a wand and a pair of round glasses which belonged to James. The third bed had a trunk at the foot of it that had the initials RJL on it. Finally, the fourth bed caught her eye.

Sirius's trunk lay open and the contents were spilling out; quills, robes, parchment, and a faint smell of dungbombs. with a roll of her eyes, she pulled the heavy curtains back and promptly jumped back at the sight before her. Sirius lay on his back clad in nothing except a pair of blue boxer shorts. His mouth was agape and he was breathing lightly. One hand was on his chest and the other was tucked partially into the waistband of his boxers. His dark hair was still perfectly in place.

Her eyes raked his body hungrily, trying to memorize every plane of his stomach and chest, every muscle she could see rippling when he breathed. Merlin, he was fit. For one wild moment she imagined how he would react if he woke up with her on top of him because she was aching to run her hands over his body.

With a sly grin, she dropped the blanket, pulled the curtains closed, and clambered up onto the bed. Trying to justify her actions to herself, she reasoned that she would do this to any of her male friends (except, of course, the ones she was related to). Her conscience was telling her to stop and for a moment she hesitated. Then she shook her head with a silent giggle and dismissed her conscience, just as she normally did.

She slung a slender leg over his body, registering belatedly that she was still in her school uniform. Now straddling his hips, she leaned forward and whispered in his ear seductively, "Wake up, sexy."

Sirius moaned in his sleep and stretched. Blearily, he blinked his eyes and gazed up at her with a frown, "Am I still dreaming?"

"Still?" she asked with a smirk, "you were dreaming about this? What exactly happened in that dream of yours, Black?"

"Well, it was very much like this," his voice was thick with sleep and it was obvious that he wasn't sure if this was reality or if he was still asleep, "except you weren't wearing any clothes. Neither was I, of course, and you weren't grinning at me like that. Your head was thrown back in ecstasy as you-"

"Alright! I get the picture!"

"Fuck, it was wonderful," his hands found her hips, his fingertips digging in, and Luna gave a light squeal as she attempted to squirm away, but before she could, Sirius moaned and bucked his hips up. A very intimate, and hard, part of him pressed against a very intimate part of her.

"Sirius!" she reprimanded in a scream and pulled away from him fast. She had not expected her 'harmless' prank to result in that. Boy had that backfired on her. It had been meant to tease him, just for a bit of fun, but it actually teased her much more. Her heart was pounding, her ears were ringing, and she felt an ache in the place where he had just pressed himself against her. Blushing furiously, she practically yelled, "You're awake, you prat! This is real! Never do that again! I can't believe I did that! I told myself I shouldn't, but oh no, I'm just that stupid, I suppose!"

"Be quiet, Lu-Lu," said Sirius as he stretched out an arm to wrap around her waist and pull her against him, "you'll wake everyone in Gryffindor Tower if you carry on like that, and I'd rather like to not be disturbed. You must have come up here for a reason, if not to climb into bed with me, then why?"

"To give you your blanket back, you imbecile!" Despite her screeching, she was still so stunned and her head was still spinning so violently that she was letting him pull her against him. Sirius rolled so that he was lying on his side, and he snuggled her body into his so that her back was pressed against his chest.

"Funny, I don't see a blanket."

"It's on the floor. I dropped it."

"What did you do that for if you were so keen on returning it to me?"

"When I saw the way you were sleeping I thought it would be funny if you woke up with me on top of you."

"Funny? How is that even remotely comical? Sexy as hell, yes. Wonderful, yes. Something right out of my dreams, yes. But not funny."

"I thought it would be a laugh," she said this defensively as she slowly began calming down.

He gave a grunt, "Yeah, I just about died of laughter," she frowned at his sarcasm. "Next time why don't you take your clothes off first? It would have been a much better prank if you had done that."

"I've learned my lesson," she sniffed, "never wake you up again."

"Oi! Will you two lovebirds shut up? I'm trying to sleep and it sounds like you're having some sort of lover's spat. Keep it down," the voice very obviously belonged to James.

"I don't mind if you're talking, as long as Luna doesn't start shouting again," commented Remus.

"I agree with Remus. Also, if you didn't start shagging, I'd appreciate it," said Peter.

Luna's face was slowly turning very red indeed. Damn those Weasley genes! Always betraying her embarrassment! "We're not going to shag!" she squeaked.

"Oh?" Inquired James conversationally, "already wore yourselves out? I'm ashamed of you, Sirius, if you only lasted one night. You should at least show the witch a good enough time to carry on for the rest of the day."

"Ashamed of me?" said Sirius casually, "or proud of me that I found a bird so spectacular she was able to wear me out in one night? Now that's a feat!"

"SHUT UP, BLACK!" Luna screamed, "We didn't have sex at all! I just came in a moment ago, for Godric's sake!"

"A moment is plenty of time for Sirius," Remus teased. James gave a loud laugh and a small chuckle from Peter was heard as well.

With an angry huff, Luna disentangled herself from Sirius's body and his bedding and stormed out of the dormitory. All of the boys pulled their curtains aside to watch her go. "Sorry, mate," said James with a grin, "but I have a bet to win. After all, you only have a few more days to get her to agree to a date with you or else ten galleons to me!"

With a quick wink at his best mate, James disappeared behind the curtains of his bed again and went back to sleep. Over the next few minutes, all of the other boys did the same. Sirius lay awake for a while, wondering how on earth he could possibly impress a girl who in and of herself was already so impressive. He was determined to find a way.

…..

"People tend to think that we girls are really close with the boys," Mary was telling Luna late one evening as the four seventh year Gryffindor girls painted each other's toenails. "But we aren't. They call themselves the Marauders. They really think they're something. Especially Potter and Black. Girls throw themselves at them."

"It's disgusting," Lily Evans threw in.

"Mmm," Luna agreed, not really understanding the point of this conversation. She had never been one to be interested in the social workings of Hogwarts. Mostly because the dynamic of this Hogwarts and her own Hogwarts were so vastly different.

"To be honest," Alice said quietly, "I'm a bit afraid of Black at times. His whole family is dark and he's so…mysterious. He doesn't enjoy attention the way James does, but he still likes people to know he's badass."

"They say," Mary continued, "that he's shagged like half the girls in the school. I believe it, too. Merlin knows we've all caught him in broom closets before."

"What about James?" Luna asked.

"He's…experienced," Mary hedged, "but not with any of us, obviously. He was a great big prat the first five years of school. Then, about halfway through sixth year he started getting kind of nice. But then there was a huge outbreak of scandalous behavior from the Slytherins. Sometimes really dark stuff, too. I heard that over half of the boys from fifth year up are already following…You-Know-Who. So James went back to being his cocky arrogant arse on the outside, but on the inside we all suspect he's a sweetie."

"What does the Slytherin's behavior have to do with James's behavior?" Luna asked with a frown.

Alice clucked her tongue, "Isn't it obvious? He's in love with Lily. Has been for a long time. In case you didn't know, Lily's a muggle born. If the Slytherin's do something nasty, it's almost always to a muggle born. Everyone knows how James feels about Lily so he keeps this bad-boy reputation up to try to stop any Slytherins from messing with her. It works pretty well, too."

"If he's so in love with me, then why is he so experienced?" Evans grumbled, recalling what Mary had said.

"Lily, you've been rejecting the bloke for years. Men have needs; urges. It's not like he's had a relationship with any of them."

"How do you know all of this anyway?" snapped Evans in an annoyed way.

"I'm the only female on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, Lils. I hear all the gross locker room chat that I would really rather not hear," she gave a shudder.

Luna grinned to herself. She remembered her own Quidditch team very well. She was the only female on her team, too, and she was the captain. It always did feel nice ordering around six gorgeous blokes who towered over her in their stature. Luna had always been a petite little thing.

"Oh, did you find a few good new team mates? We're short a Chaser and a Keeper now that Scott and Trent graduated." Alice wondered.

"Yes," Mary groaned, "finally, after some grueling tryouts, we found two more blokes. Isn't that just lovely? Martin Hewitt, you know, in fifth year, he's our new Keeper. Kyle Lewis is our third Chaser."

"Oi! MacDonald!" a male voice called up.

"Speak of the devil," she muttered. Then yelled, "WHAT DO YOU WANT, LEWIS?"

"Potter said that you had better get your, and I quote, 'smarmy arse down here in five minutes or you'll be late.' He also wanted me to warn you that if you're late, your punishment is the same as the boys' punishments when they're late. No exceptions just because you're a girl."

"Stupid. Bloody. Potter," Mary growled as she got up and began pulling on warmer clothes.

"What's the punishment if you're late?" asked Alice.

"We have to run five laps around the Quidditch pitch."

"Oh, that's not bad."

"In my underwear."

"WHAT?"

"Yep, that's the rule. Apparently that's been the rule for years, but I'm the first girl on the house team in half a century so they weren't sure what to do with me. They decided to treat me exactly like one of the blokes."

"You know," Lily said with a smirk, "you could always use that to your advantage. Show up to Quidditch late, and I'll make sure Remus just happens to wander down the Quidditch pitch while you're running laps."

"LILY EVANS!" Mary squealed while laughing, "I can't believe you would suggest something so devious!" she paused, "Let's do it!"

"No," grumbled Alice, "it's freezing outside, Mary!"

"That would be the point, wouldn't it?" Mary argued, gesturing toward her well endowed chest.

Alice threw a pillow over face and grumbled into it. Luna laughed, "Better make sure you're wearing just the right underwear then."

"Excellent point!" Mary began stripping. She pulled off all of the clothes she was wearing and shimmied into a pair of plain pink panties and a satin pink bra. "I don't want to show off too much," she said thoughtfully as she held up a black see-through bra and considered it, "after all, all of the other blokes on the pitch will see me as well."

They waited fifteen minutes then Mary left with a quick, "Wish me luck!"

The girls waited five more minutes after that before running to find Remus Lupin. He was in the common room, of course, with Peter and Sirius. Peter and Remus were doing homework. Sirius was watching in an amused way and every so often he would flick his wand at Peter's essay and it would go mysteriously blank. "It's done it again!" he cried to Remus, "I don't understand where the hell all my words went, but they were just right here on the parchment!"

"I'm sure they'll turn up," Sirius's voice gave away nothing. He was the perfect actor.

"Remus!" Lily Evans called, "I just came from the Quidditch pitch. Potter wants you to come down there right away. He says it's important."

"I wonder what that's about," frowning, Remus rolled up his parchment and headed for the portrait hole. The girls followed, giggling. Before Luna reached the portrait hole however, Sirius grabbed her by the arm and spun her around.

"Alright, what are you three playing at? I watched you walk down from your dormitory. Evans wasn't at the Quidditch pitch."

"Come on, Black, let's go find out!" Luna was so giddy about their plan that she unthinkingly held Sirius's hand and dragged him all the way across the grounds.

When they reached the place where the Gryffindor Quidditch team was practicing, Sirius's jaw dropped. Mary MacDonald was running around in her knickers! "What the bloody hell?"

"Brilliant idea, wasn't it? We knew Mary was late for Quidditch, and punishment for being late to practice is this," she motioned toward Mary, "so we lured Remus down here to see it."

Sirius gave a laugh. "Whose idea was that, anyway? Yours?"

"Oh, no, it was Lily's idea."

"No!"

"Yep."

Together they watched Mary run her laps. Remus Lupin stood not too far from them, also watching, with a conflicted expression on his face. "He likes her, you know," Sirius muttered, "it's probably driving him bonkers that all of these blokes are watching her."

For the first time Luna realized that every male on the team, except for Potter, was watching her avidly. Potter, however, had noticed that Lily Evans was on the pitch and had flown down to chat with her. No one expected what happened next.

As Mary ran close by Remus, he leapt out and grabbed hold of her, spinning her around. Her momentum propelled her body into his hard and they stumbled back. He tore off his cloak and wrapped it around her nearly naked body. Then he kissed her.

There was a collective "Ooo," sound from everyone watching. Sirius gave a small smile, "I hope he knows what he's doing," he said.

"Oh, loosen up, Black, it's just a kiss."

"If a kiss isn't a big deal to you, then why aren't we snogging all the time?"

"The reason it isn't a big deal is because Remus and Mary fancy each other."

"Do you think that I don't fancy you?" he asked in surprise. Was that why she was avoiding him so much? Was she worried that her feelings weren't returned?

"Hardly. I don't fancy you," she lied.

"Ouch," he pretended to be hurt by her words, "I'll have to see what I can do to change that."

Luna snorted but didn't reply. James Potter came running over. "Are you seeing this, Padfoot? Look at our ickle little Moony. He's growing up," he said wistfully, "next thing you know they'll be shagging and we'll hardly see him at all anymore."

"Somehow, I can't see Moony giving it up that easily. Mary has her work cut out for her if she wants to get in his trousers."

"I reckon," James mused.

On the pitch, Remus and Mary were still locked in a fierce embrace. Remus lifted her off of her feet and kept on snogging her. "Merlin," said Sirius with a laugh, "you might need to find yourself a new Chaser, mate, it looks like this could last a while."

"Oi!" James called through all of the wolf whistles, "as happy as I am that you two are snogging like mad, this is still team practice! Lupin, Black, Fortescue, and Granger! Off the pitch now! Evans, you can stay, but since you're late, you'll have to run five laps in your knickers," he winked.

Lily Evans scowled and stalked off the pitch, her long red hair swaying behind her. Alice followed right on her heels. "Did you honestly expect her to listen to any orders from you?" Sirius asked.

"No, I just love the way she blushes when I embarrass her. She's fucking gorgeous."

"Uh oh, here comes trouble," Sirius motioned to where a small group of a few Ravenclaws and a few Slytherins were approaching the field.

"Why is it trouble?" Luna asked with interest.

"See that big bloke there? Yeah, that's Eric Crawley. Mary's boyfriend."

"Uh oh," Luna agreed.

"And," growled James, "let's just say that it's not only Slytherins who turn dark side. Crawley is always hanging around Avery and Nott. Come on, Pads, let's go help Remus."

The three of them jogged over to where Eric was approaching Remus, who still had his arms wrapped around Mary. "What the fucking hell do you think you're doing, Lupin? That's my girlfriend."

"Eric," Mary said quickly, intervening, "I'm really sorry. I never meant for it to happen like this, but I think we should break up."

"Of course we're fucking breaking up. Do you think I'd still tolerate your blood traitor tendencies after finding out you're such a little whore?"

"Watch your fucking mouth, Crawley," Sirius growled. Luna looked up at him with a light shiver. She remembered Alice saying that she was sometimes frightened of Black and Luna could now see why. When he wanted, he could look positively frightening.

"Sirius," Mary said quietly, timidly, "you don't need to stand up for me."

"Actually," said James as he glared daggers at Eric, "we do. If you're with Moony, you're with us."

"Blood traitor Potter," sneered Avery, "always sticking up for mudbloods and blood traitors. Better watch it, or your little redhead will be next."

James took a step toward him meaning to attack, but Sirius put a hand on his chest, holding him back. "If you want to continue breathing, you might want to get out of here," he warned.

"Not without teaching this bitch a lesson," Eric's hand snapped out and caught hold of Mary's forearm, yanking her toward him. She yelped. In a flash, Remus Lupin had somehow managed to maneuver himself between them, shielding Mary as she rubbed her sore arm.

"Leave," he warned, "now."

"You think we couldn't take you? Look at it, Lupin, you're outnumbered. Even if Potter and Black fought us with you, it would still be eight against three," Luna glanced around at the group of intimidating boys who looked like they were itching for a fight. Regulus Black and Severus Snape were among them. Along with Avery, Nott, Crawley, and three Ravenclaws she didn't recognize.

The eight of them drew their wands. Luna took a hesitant step back. Sirius's entire body tensed and he saw red. These bastards had scared her. With a fierce desire to protect her, he stepped in front of her small frame, crossing his arms over his chest. James still had a snarl on his face and looked like he would kill the first bloke to fire a jinx at him.

"She said she didn't want to be your girlfriend anymore, Eric," Remus, always the peacemaker, was saying calmly, "that's the end of it."

"No," Crawley was shaking his head, "it's not."

"Do you really want to fight us?" growled James. Luna was glancing back and forth between all of the boys. When she stole a glance at Mary, she saw that she was just as frightened as Luna was. Both held their ground, standing just behind the boys.

"You're all talk, Potter." Nott said. The boys behind him laughed appreciatively.

"Want to find out?" it was an invitation and a warning in one.

Slowly, a few of the boys backed off a bit. Eric, noticing his entourage slowly dispersing, pointed a threatening finger at Remus and Mary, "You'd better be watching your back. The moment your Marauder pals aren't around to help you, you'll get it, you bint. Same for you, Lupin." He, too, stalked off after his friends.

"That was close," said Mary in a shaky voice.

"For Godric's sake, Moony," said Sirius with a small grin, "did you have to kiss the bird before she broke up with that arse?"

Remus blushed and mumbled something that sounded like, "Couldn't help myself."

Mary smiled at him and stretched up to kiss his cheek, "Thank you," she said to him, "for helping me."

"What about us?" James demanded, "we were here, too!"

"Mate, let Remus take the credit for this one," Sirius recommended.

James sighed, "Alright, but don't let our contribution be forgotten!" James reached for his broom, mounted it, but just before he took off on it he said, "Aw fuck!"

"What?" asked Sirius distractedly.

"Those dicks took off in the same direction as Lily and Alice!"

"Fuck!"

They all ran. James yelled to his team mates who had all landed to watch the confrontation, "PRACTICE TONIGHT IS CANCELLED! GO BACK TO THE COMMON ROOM!"

On the grounds, not too far from the castle, there was a circle of eight boys. Nott shifted his weight slightly and in the center of the circle Luna could just see Lily Evans, standing defensively in front of Alice. "LILY!" James screamed and took off running. Sirius and Remus followed.

"Oh no," groaned Mary, "this is all my fault!"

"No, it's not," Luna assured her, "it's not your fault that Eric is a psychopath."

Without waiting to see if the group of boys who Luna assumed were all Death Eaters would back off or not, James flicked his wand and hit Nott in the back of the head with a curse. Lily Evans was supporting Alice, who looked like she was injured. "Get Allie to the hospital wing!" James called to her. Lily Evans nodded and started making her way slowly to the castle, basically carrying Alice. She was struggling.

"Go help her," Luna said, "Get Alice to the castle fast!" Mary nodded and ran to help.

Luna jumped into the fight. She had never been in a fight like this before. She had heard stories and even seen a few of her father's memories by accident in his pensieve, but this was something else all together. Jets of light flew all around her. A well placed hex of hers managed to hit Crawley and she was glad for that. Remus looked like he had been hit with something, but despite his obvious disorientation, was still shooting jinxes at his enemies.

James and Sirius were something to behold. The lights from their wands illuminated them in the darkness and they both had looks of rage etched onto their gorgeous faces. Luna was momentarily breathless. In that moment, more than anything, she wanted to kiss Sirius Black. She wanted to taste those lips that were currently curled into a snarl and use her body to express to him how brave and wonderful she thought he was.

They were taking out most of the boys who surrounded them with minimal difficulty. Severus Snape and Regulus Black were quite obviously the two most skilled of their lot, and Luna wanted to keep her eyes on them. It happened while she was distracted. One of the Ravenclaw boys she hadn't recognized shot a curse at her. The Cruciatus Curse hit her in her abdomen and she fell to her knees screaming, dropping her wand.

"NO!" it was the only noise she could hear through her pain. The enraged and terrified bellow of Sirius Black. Then, suddenly, there was no more pain. Gasping, Luna opened her eyes; when had she closed them? Sirius Black, still in the middle of a fight, had his wand brandished above his head, but his hand was stretched out toward her. That was when she understood. He had used wandless magic to push her body out of the way. Sirius looked wide-eyed at his hand, as if shocked by what he had done and then rushed toward her, taking out his own brother along the way; Regulus Black fell with ropes binding him from head to foot.

"Are you alright?" he sounded like she had never heard him before. He sounded well and truly frightened. His hands were trembling as he wrapped an arm around her to help her up.

"Yeah, I'm-I'm okay," her body was shaking. Weak, she was so weak, and so tired. "You're…blurry," she muttered. Then everything went black.

…..

"Dueling!" she heard someone screech. Ah, the dulcet tones of Madam Pomfrey. So she was in the hospital wing then. That was some comfort, at least. James and Sirius must have won the duel because she was sure if the other side had, they would have left her unconscious body out on the grounds. "And you! I said lay down!"

"Oh, stuff it, you old bat," Sirius! Luna's eyes snapped open at the sound of his voice and found him standing beside her, looking absolutely perfect. Not a scratch on him. Madam Pomfrey left the room with an annoyed, "hmph!"

"Are you hurt?" she asked him.

He laughed, "Not a bit. Promfrey tends to overreact."

"How are the others?"

"Moony is sleeping. Up in Gryffindor Tower; we don't know what they hit him with, but he's really disoriented. Not a normal Confundus Charm, that's for sure. Before we got to the girls, they'd already broken Alice's leg, but Madam Pomfrey fixed it in a moment and sent her back to the common room. Same for those stupid gits who fought us. We didn't use any dark magic on them or anything, so they're all back in their dormitories licking their wounds."

"And James?"

"Oh, he's fine. Right beside me, actually," Sirius shot his elbow out into thin air and Luna heard an audible, "Oof!" "James has a Cloak of Invisibility," said Sirius unnecessarily.

"Shut it, Pads. Don't let Pomfrey hear you! The only reason she's not trying to force me to lie down is because she can't find me!"

"Well, now that we know you're alright, we should get back to Gryffindor Tower. If Pomfrey comes back and asks where I went, tell her I went to the library or something." Sirius turned to go out the door, but Luna stopped him.

"Wait!" she remembered very vividly what he had done for her. How anguished he had been when she had been hurt. Merlin, she was probably going to regret this later, but… "Stay with me. Please."

He smiled, "Yeah, alright." He turned to look beside him. "Prongs? Please?" he held out his hand. James grumbled and sighed but pulled the Cloak off of himself and handed it over to his best friend.

"Just for tonight," he said, then snuck quickly out of the Hospital Wing. Sirius threw the cloak over himself and climbed into the bed Luna was in. She could feel his body pressed against hers and barely suppressed a shiver. His chest was so hard and warm and wonderful. She wanted to sink into his embrace and…and…Godric! He smelled divine!

"Well where did that rascal go?" Madam Pomfrey was back in the room holding a vial of a Sleeping Draught.

"Said he had an essay to finish so he took off for the library," Luna lied and felt Sirius's body vibrate with a silent laugh.

"Seventeen year old boys! They think they're invincible, well they're not! He should be resting and taking it easy! Here, dear, take this. It will help. They said you were hit with the curse in your abdomen, so you will probably be a bit sore there for a while."

"Yes, Ma'm."

"I'm turning off the lights now. No more visitors tonight. Goodnight, dear."

"Goodnight, Madam Pomfrey." She flicked her wand and all of the torches went out. She gave a yawn before retreating into her quarters.

"How could you let yourself get hit with an Unforgivable Curse?" Sirius scolded.

"Oh, I thought it would be a laugh," she said sarcastically. "I didn't let it happen, you dolt!"

"I've seen you duel James before. You have skill. What happened?"

Luna tried to remember. She remembered looking to see how her friends were doing. She remembered seeing Sirius's face; more devil than angel as it often was, illuminated by the light of his wand. Her mind had wandered to kissing him. That was what happened. Sirius Black. A light blush rose up into her cheeks. She couldn't tell him the truth. "I…got distracted."

"Distracted?" he asked incredulously, "by what?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe one or more of the eight wizards shooting curses at me?" Then, in a smaller voice, she said, "Or maybe my friends who were also in the fight with me."

"What? James, Remus, and I? You were distracted by us?"

"Perhaps a bit," she hedged.

"Lu-Lu," he said it with just a slight growl. A warning that he was going to get an honest answer out of her.

"Fine! I was distracted by you! Godric! Are you happy now?"

There was a pause. "No," he said, "I'm not happy that you were hurt because I distracted you. What did I do that was so distracting?" Luna jumped slightly as she felt an invisible hand stroke her face.

"You were, um, dueling."

"And?"

"And I was watching you instead of what I was doing."

"Why?"

Instead of answering him this time, she reached her hand up and pulled the hood of the cloak back so she could see his face. He wore an expression that was a mix between amused and curious. Finally, she sighed and closed her eyes. How could she resist him? She'd been ignoring him for weeks. Yet every moment of every day she was hyper-aware of him.

Perhaps this was her fate. What if it had always been her destiny to come back to this time and stay here forever? What if she was one of the many nameless witches and wizards who were killed by Death Eaters? Without thinking, or perhaps after too much thinking, her eyes snapped open and she tilted her face toward his, connecting their lips for the very first time.

Sirius responded enthusiastically. With a surprised gasp, he wrapped a strong arm around her and pulled her up against him, melding their bodies together with his fierce grip. He kissed her expertly, his lips moving with hers, both of their mouths fighting for dominance. When he traced her bottom lip with his tongue and then nipped it, she surrendered, parting her lips for him. Thrilled by his victory, his tongue skillfully invaded her mouth as he rolled their bodies slightly so he was pressing her gently into the mattress.

Pain emanated from her midsection and she let out a soft cry of pain. Sirius pulled back immediately. For a moment his grey eyes were unfocused and cloudy. Then, he snapped back to reality and said in a husky voice, "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking about how hurt you are." And rolled off of her.

"Pain be damned," she muttered, her fingers gripping the silky material of the cloak and pulling his face back to hers.

They kissed for a moment more before Sirius pulled away again, "I don't want to hurt you again, and if you keep snogging me like that, I'm not likely to exhibit much self control. Not to mention, we're in the Hospital Wing. Students and professors wander in and out constantly."

Luna grumbled but admitted, "I reckon you're right. I suppose we can always continue this later yeah?"

He chuckled lightly, "Of course, love, whenever and where ever you'd like. As soon as you're better." His hand was stroking her arm aimlessly and Luna was shocked at how comforting it was. In her seventeen short years of life, she'd never felt like this before. Suddenly, she wasn't so sure she wanted to return home, because in that moment, Sirius Black felt more like home to her than anywhere else ever had.

"Is that what distracted you during the fight?" he asked, nuzzling his face into the crook of her neck.

"Yes," she told him with a slight catch in her voice, "I glanced over to see how you were managing, and when I saw you I couldn't stop thinking about how much I wanted to snog you senseless."

"If that's all it takes, then I'll have to kick their asses more often."

Luna smiled at him, "Thank you," she whispered, "for saving me and for staying with me tonight."

She could feel the tip of his nose and his warm lips as they trailed up from her neck all the way to her forehead. He pressed his lips there and the light stubble on his jaw tickled her a bit, "Anything you ask of me," he was whispering, too, "I'll do it."

…..

A/N: Let me start off by saying I know a lot of you are probably surprised or disbelieving of the fact that Severus Snape took part in anything nasty toward Lily Evans (when, in my chapter, Lily and Alice were surrounded by several students and attacked on their way back to the castle Severus Snape was among the students doing the attacking). Even though I did not specifically say it in my story, Snape did not directly participate in this. He stood back, not defending Evans but not attacking her either. I'm sure that if one of them had tried to seriously harm her, he would have defended her, but they didn't attack Lily Evans, they broke Alice's leg and then James, Sirius, and Luna showed up before it went any further than that.

Also, I know some of you might be thinking, "Well that happened fast," BUT 1. Are you sure this is going to last? What if nothing comes of the kiss Luna and Sirius shared? 2. The story is not focused on them falling in love. It's about their lives. This is a three-part story and this is still just the first part.

Please leave reviews for any comments or criticisms! I appreciate both!

SPOILER ALERT: In the next chapter we will encounter more of Severus Snape and more of Minerva McGonagall!