A/N: Thank you for the reviews! Also I noticed a lot of people placed this on their fav stories/ story alerts, so thank to them as well. Please feel free to review at any time!

Chapter Three

Helena was quitting.

She was going to leave school, with nothing but her OWLs and her wits, and take her chances in the world. Because there was no way she was going to become a healer—she couldn't possibly learn everything she needed to in the time they had. At the moment she was stumbling to the library under the weight of about half of said library. She had three essays to write in two days; one for potions, one charms and one for transfiguration. And she'd already been up for two nights running doing work and everything else.

When she got to the library, all the tables and chairs in there were already occupied. Though she hadn't expected to find Sirius as one of those working. Though to be fair, he wasn't actually working. More smirking in a condescending way at everyone else who was. There was a second year sat opposite him, quill moving feverishly over the parchment.

"Move," Helena snapped.

He looked up, blinking. "W-what?"

"Move. Now."

"But-"

"Move now, or I'll curse you so badly you won't be able to walk straight for the rest of your life. Or maybe you'd like me to transfigure you into a frog. Or a tadpole. Any preference?"

The second year fled the library with his figurative tail between his legs while Helena slammed her bag down on the table.

Sirius raised his eyebrows. "You alright, Hellfire? You seem to be channeling McGonagall."

"No," she snapped, "I am not alright. We've been back six weeks and all we've heard is how this is going to be harder than any previous year we've been through, how it's going to be work work work, how if we want to be achieve anything then it's crucial we get all Os in our NEWTs even though being a Healer only needs Es but apparently that just won't look good enough in Hogwarts' graduate statistics for the teachers to stop nagging at us and I've had enough, I've had bloody enough!"

"Bit stressed then," he surmised lightly.

"Just a bit."

He pulled a silver hipflask from his bag. "Firewhiskey?"

"No thanks. I have a feeling alcohol would compound everything."

"Great stress-reliever though."

"Until the hangover kicks in. Put it away. Madam Pince will kill you if she catches you with it."

He took a swig before doing so, coughing up smoke once or twice. "You do need to relax though."

She nodded. "And I need a massage. I've got knots the size of pheonix eggs in my muscles. And no, before you ask, I don't want you to give me shoulder rub. I really don't want my bra undone."

He put a hand to his chest. "You cut me to the quick, Helena, you really do."

With a sigh, she opened her bag and pulled out blank rolls of parchment, a quill, inkwell and three heavy books on animagi. All of them were obviously intended to put the reader off—they all contained descriptions of what could happen if the process went wrong in great detail. The pictures were even worse. She couldn't hold back a wince at some of them.

"Thinking of giving it a go?" Sirius asked, keeping his tone light. Idly he wondered what animal she'd turn into. Probably whatever her patronus was, though that wasn't a guarantee. James' was the same, and his—a wolf—was very similar. Whatever she'll turn into, it'll be graceful, he found himself thinking, which made no sense. On a broom she was anything but.

"One day maybe. But I wouldn't dare until I could talk to other animagi, get them to help me through it. Way too dangerous."

He grinned. "Really?"

She looked up at him. "Absolutely! I mean just look at these pictures!" She gestured at one, which showed a witch transforming into what looked like a bird. She had a beak, and wings instead of arms, but wings that hadn't shifted position, so they were still hanging down, and jointed like arms. Likewise, her legs were bent backwards like a birds, but weren't those of a bird. "Plus the fact, you have no idea what you'd transform into. What if you transformed into a dolphin or something a hundred miles away from the sea? I'd have to be a total idiot to want to try it before I know everything I can."

"A total idiot, eh?"

"Yeah, just think-" She looked up suspiciously. "Sirius."

He blinked innocently. "What?"

"Tell me you've never tried it."

"I haven't tried it." Technically true. He hadn't tried, he'd succeeded.

"I don't think I believe you."

"I don't lie to my friends."

She narrowed her gaze. "Just how long has your nickname been Padfoot?"

Oh shit. "What?"

"And James—when did you start calling him Prongs?"

"I don't remember."

"I'm sure."

"Seriously, Helena, youneed to relax. The stress is making you more than paranoid."

She carried on staring at him for a few seconds, then sighed and put her head on the page in front of her. "Yeah. You're right, the idea is ridiculous."

Sirius breathed an inward sigh of relief. "Yep. Ridiculous."

"Sorry, Pads."

"Don't worry about it."

"Okay, stress relievers…alcohol's out, so is sport—I mean, Merlin, look how bad I am at Quidditch. Can't use food, or I'll get to the size of Slughorn. Which leaves…"

"Sex," they said in unison.

"But if I'm going to get decent results then I won't have time for a relationship," she said. "I mean I know there are muggle solutions to that-"

"There are?"

"Yeah. Apparently it's called a 'vibrator', so Emily informs us. She's quite candid about what it does."

"What does it do?"

"What do you think?" Helena asked. "You know your way around a woman's body, Sirius. Which bit would appreciate vibration?"

"I can guess," he grinned.

"Hmmm, then maybe your reputation is deserved."

"I have a reputation?" he asked, delighted.

"Yes."

"Is it good?"

"I hate to disappoint you, but my lips are sealed," she smiled. "But anyway, it runs on…what are those things which power muggle stuff called?"

He shrugged. "No idea. Never did Muggle Studies."

"No, nor me. Well, whatever they're called, it wouldn't work in Hogwarts. So I need the real thing. That's so tedious."

"Plus there's the problem of your reputation."

Her jaw dropped. "My reputation? But I've only ever- I mean once…"

This is news. As far as he knew—or had known up until a few days ago—Helena was a virgin. She definitely never slept with anyone at Hogwarts. Or at least no one in Gryffindor. Or Slytherin. And she wasn't evil, but she could be a bit of a snob, so not a Hufflepuff either.

"Was he a Ravenclaw?"

Immediately, he wanted to take the question back. He hadn't meant to ask it. It wasn't his business, and she was a friend; it wasn't his right to judge her, to demand details. But the blush the rose to Helena's cheeks was rather endearing.

"No. He was a muggle actually. Farm hand I think."

"And your father didn't kill him?"

"Father doesn't know. And Lucius doesn't know he knows," she added slyly. "I love memory charms."

"How old were you?"

"I'll tell if you will."

"Fourteen. Lucy Anders. Hufflepuff common room."

"Sixteen. Tractor. His name was Oliver." She smiled fondly. "It was rather lovely."

"Lovely," he repeated, in a tone much less pleased than hers. "Your entire experience of sex is 'lovely'. Bloody hell, Helena, you need to get laid."

"Are you volunteering for the job?" she asked archly, raising an eyebrow.

"Maybe."

She flicked her gaze over him appraisingly, apparently actually considering it. Sirius didn't blush or shy away from her eyes. He knew he looked good—Quidditch most days of the week had ensured that, and his face wasn't bad either. And self-esteem wouldn't let him think that this 'reputation' she'd referenced would be anything bad—that had to be good.

"So this would be, what, friends with…"

"…benefits."

She grinned. "Simple solution, clean, effective. I like it."

"Are you serious?"

"Why not?" she shrugged. "Merlin knows I could have done with it during the fourth year tests."

"You aced them."

"Yeah, and then that summer I went home and shagged the first decent-looking muggle I came across. You're telling me you didn't do the same?"

"Well of course I did but I'm a bloke."

"So teenage girls don't get horny unless they're being seduced by Sirius Black is that it?"

He grinned, but then sobered. "Helena, on paper this sounds like a good idea, but I'm really not the relationship type. Honestly I doubt I'd be capable of it."

She sighed and leaned forward, putting her hands on his shoulders and her face a few inches from his. "My dear Padfoot—if I were after a relationship, I'd hardly be likely to pick the boy most likely to break my heart, now would I?"

He searched her gaze carefully—there was amusement in its blue depths, but no nervousness or anything softer or deeper than friendship. This really was about sex, apparently.

"I suppose not."

"No. So are we shagging, or not?"

It took them less than five minutes to reach the boys' dormitory—no one was in there, though it didn't seem like that would have stopped Helena. She was certainly dedicated to her course once she settled on it. It was impossible to keep track of her hands, they were moving that fast, and everywhere. But wherever they were they felt great. Not as great as it did when she was trapped between him and the wall, legs wrapped around his hips. He'd never really noticed just how frankly endless her legs were until he was running his hands up and down her thighs.

He tore his mouth from hers long enough to gasp out, "Shouldn't we be doing this…in a bed?"

She chuckled lowly and ran the tip of her tongue up his neck. "You never struck me as a traditionalist, Padfoot."

He shuddered, then grabbed her hand and tugged her up the rest of the stairs. There was no one in the dormitory, but Sirius did a quick sweep of the bathroom just in case. Then what little remained of his brain kicked in.

"Hellfire, are you sure you want to do this? Because-"

Something soft landed on his head. Which when he pulled it off turned out to be…a blouse. When he turned around, the only thing Helena had on her top half was a lilic lace and silk bra. Thought disappeared.

All Helena's breath was forcibly removed from her lungs once her bra was gone and had been replaced by Sirius' mouth on one breast and and his fingers on the other. Her back arched off the bed. She groaned aloud. "Why have we never…done this…before…?"

All he did was grin and go back to swirling his tongue around her nipple. That grin got her annoyed—it was so smug. So sure she was going to collapse into a puddle, putty in his hands. Well, one part of her was wet, and getting wetter by the blissful second, but she wasn't going to be the one completely helpless in his hands. She went for his neck again, kissing lightly until the softest of groans left him, and then she bit down. The moaned utterance of her name brought a sharp spike of pleasure. They were both completely naked within a matter of seconds; Helena turned them, putting his hands exactly where she wanted them. Her hand curled around his length, rubbing softly up and down. Sirius moved his left hand from her hip to her core. Her throbbing clit more than welcomed the attention, but she still refused to surrender control. She put his hand back and fixed her eyes on his.

"Watch me," she breathed.

She sank onto him slowly. Too slowly. But there would be time for haste later. Time for rough fucking up against a wall somewhere. For now she wanted him to lose everything before she gave it back to him. It took almost everything she had not to give into instincts which had been ignored for far too long. It had been too long, it had been too long since she'd felt this… She pushed her hips down a little further, and realised she had never felt this. Not this deep, not this filling. Not this good.

By the time he was all the way into her, Sirius' fingers were digging almost painfully into the skin of her hips, and his teeth were gritted hard. She leaned forward, ran her fingers through his hair with a grin on her face. "Something the matter?"

He opened fevered grey eyes. "Move. Hellfire, move."

Laughing breathlessly, she did. They rose and fell together, bodies sheened with sweat and bursting with pleasure. It crackled along Helena's nerves like lightning, setting everything screaming. It could have been aloud; she would never have known. The orgasms weren't slow in coming, for either of them, but they were no less intense when they hit. Helena went rigid first, shuddering with the climax. Sirius fucked her through the peak to his own orgasm a moment later.

Bones removed, Helena slumped forward, panting hard but with a broad grin on her face. "We should do that more often."

He pushed sweat-streaked hair back from his forehead with the hand that wasn't wrapped around her waist. "We will."

They were silent for the time it took for Helena to get her breath back. "So what is my reputation?" she asked after the sweat had cooled.

"Bit of an ice queen. Frigid in some quarters."

"Well? Am I frigid?" she asked.

He barked with laughter. "Yeah. Yeah I'd say so. Particularly icy with you riding me. And those moans and cries of pleasure—positively chilling."

She grinned, then stretched, cat-like, a grin borrowed straight from the proverbial Cheshire still fixed on her face. With that, put her arms above her head and snuggled deeper into the covers. "Where are the others?"

"Potions possibly."

"Right. How is it I'm not caring about that?"

"It's what good sex does I suppose. And that was gooooooooood sex."

Helena could only agree.

Sirius was on the borders of sleep when Helena suddenly began laughing quietly, and then louder, and then finally crying with it. "What? What's so funny?"

"I was just thinking," she gasped out. "But, well, what if this is some elaborate plot from our parents?"

"What?"

"Think about it. You're a Black, I'm a Malfoy—and we're in bed together. It's pretty much perfect from a pureblood point of view isn't it? And we've both strived so hard to rebel and break from the norm too…" She giggled softly.

"Ah, the irony."

A/N: Review please!