A/N: Thank you to my wonderful beta CC :) And thank you for the reviews - all very much appreciated!

Chapter Four

Stress disappeared almost overnight—Helena had been worried (at first) that maybe the sheer amount of sex she was now getting would be distracting, would be too time-consuming, but it really wasn't. Sirius didn't press her for sex when she wasn't in the mood for it, and in the bedroom he really was just a booty-call. Outside of it, still one of her best friends of course, but she didn't have to pay him any more attention than she normally did. Now that she wasn't getting stress headaches, or worrying too much about the amount of work that lay ahead, it was far easier to tackle essays, new spells and potions she'd never brewed before. Lily had noticed a change, but she didn't say anything or ask what had caused it.

By Halloween, no one knew. It wasn't an active secret, just mere coincidence. Whenever they used the boys' dormitory it had been empty, and Sirius physically couldn't get into the girls'. There had, as Helena predicted, been a few times where she'd been pressed between Sirius and a wall—much to the enjoyment of both of them—but so far no situations where they'd been caught in the act.

Today, a Saturday, was the first Quidditch match of the season. Gryffindor vs Slytherin, which was always guaranteed to be fun, always guaranteed to be dirty. And it wasn't necessarily the Slytherins who were the dirty ones, though. James tended to get very passionate about the sport, though she really didn't know why. Quidditch was one thing she had hated from the very first time she'd ridden a broom. On the ground she was as graceful as the next person, on the dance floor moderately better, but on a broom, she was…terrible was putting it kindly. Normally she tried to avoid the house matches, and invariably she failed. Today it had been Peter's eager-to-please smile that got her down to the Quidditch pitch. Now he was on his feet next to her, small eyes wide and excited, fixed on the action in the skies above them. Remus was on his other side, doing much the same. Lily was sat with the other Gryffindor girls a few seats over, watching it with the wonder that muggle-borns never seemed to lose. Everyone around her was draped in solid scarlet and gold; she'd restrained herself to a Gryffindor scarf wrapped around her neck. If she was honest, though, she did like being a spectator at these things.

Except when James got a bludger in the face. Through her binoculars, it was horribly close-up and horribly-detailed. Blood started dripping from his nose in a steady flow. She winced for her friend. "Damn it, Padfoot, where were you?"

Where he was turned out to be at the goalposts, beating the other bludger away from Amelia Peasgood, the Keeper. And while the other Gryffindor Beater was strong, he wasn't particularly fast. Either that or his broom wasn't great. Sirius got revenge for James' injury though, whacking his bludger into the right shoulder of Rabastan Lestrange. Helena almost heard the crack.

It deteriorated from there. By the end of the match some seventy minutes later, five out of the seven Gryffindor players were bruised or battered in one form or another, with only four of the Slytherins in a similarly bad way. Though that wasn't anything to do with Gryffindor chivalry. More like their focus being on winning the match more than beating the opposing team to a bloody pulp. It didn't last long though—as soon as the snitch was in James' hand, Sirius not-so-accidentally ploughed into Avery, knocking him fifteen feet off his broom into the mud. He wasn't hurt, but he wasn't happy either. Neither was the referee.

"He is such an idiot sometimes."

Peter bit his lip. "But the match is over. She can't give Slytherin a penalty after Prongs caught the snitch can she?"

"Of course not," Remus assured him. "Though she can take points from Gryffindor."

She did—twenty points.

And then forty points from Slytherin when Avery took revenge by hitting Sirius across his back with his club. The two teams left for the changing rooms in a chorus of as many boos as cheers. "Well, at least we won," Peter said cheerily.

"We could have won by more than we did," Remus said.

Helena agreed. It was uncharacteristic of James, but there had been at least three easy opportunities to catch the snitch that even she had seen. How the self-styled 'best seeker in the world' had missed them she had no idea. And the rest of them hadn't been on top form either.

"Yeah, but be fair," Pete argued, "James looks like he's broken his nose, and Padfoot's probably got some serious bruises."

"They'll both be fine," Helena said absently.

"Still got to hurt though. He'll be black and blue."

All down his back, she thought. Maybe all over his chest too… One downside to sleeping with Sirius that she'd found—the amount of thought she spent on sex had about tripled. Quickly, she mentally ran through her workload. There was a DADA essay due on Thursday, but other than that she was pretty much clear. Certainly there was nothing else pressing she had to do this evening.

"Well," Remus said, shaking his head, "I just hope they find a better form of motivation the next match."

She grinned inwardly. Well, she wasn't going to motivate the whole team…but one Beater? She could manage that.

"Coming, Helena?"

"You go on ahead. Think I'll wait for the others and walk back up with them."

"Okay. See you later."

She waved the two of them off and went down to the changing rooms, underneath the stands. The Gryffindor team was just coming out as she arrived, or at least the majority of them were, all looking less pleased than she would have guessed.

"What's the matter with them?" she asked James as he came out.

"I told them all to wipe the smiles off their underachieving faces."

"Oh. You won."

"Not by enough. Not by near enough."

She nodded, not understanding enough about either Quidditch or men to get how a win could be described as 'not enough'. Checking behind him, she raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you actually managed to dent Padfoot's self-esteem that much that he's sulking."

He smirked. "Nah, he's still in the showers. Trying to wash off the desire to kill Avery I think."

"I'll wait for him. Wouldn't want him to get scared in the dark after all."

"Alright. Do me a favour? Screw his head back on straight. He listens to you."

She nodded, thinking, Well I'll definitely be screwing something…

She waited until James was out of sight before she went inside the changing rooms, checking that no one else was in there before she locked the door and headed toward the showers. Steam wafted invitingly from around the corner, the noise of the water growing louder as she got closer. By the time she got to the showers, her clothes were littered in a line on the tile. She pushed back the shower curtain almost silently, then adopted a nonchalant pose.

"I'm going to need you out of the shower soon, Mr Black."

"Helena? What are you doing in here?"

"Team's new healer."

He smirked. "I see. This is strictly a professional visit then."

"Strictly."

"And the lack of clothes…?"

"Well I didn't want to get mine wet," she exclaimed, eyes wide.

He spread his arms out, then turned on the spot with a very confident smile on his face. Well-placed confidence too. His muscles were never less than impressive, but wet and slippery…Helena swallowed when his back was turned, then slipped her hands around him while he still faced away from her.

"So…bruises?"

"Mostly on my back. Right shoulder."

She lowered her lips to the offending scarlet mark. It was already beginning to darken in the middle. "Next?"

"Ribs, at the bottom on the left side."

She bent and kissed that too. There was a long red mark going diagonally across his back where Avery had hit him, so she dragged her mouth along it. "Anything else?"

Sirius let out the breath he'd been holding. "Think I'm good."

Her hands caressed further downwards while she purred into his ear. "So no…lumps…bumps…abnormal swellings?"

"Don't think so."

"No? So this," a sharp gasp was torn from his throat, "is perfectly normal?"

"Well…with you around…"

She chuckled, then moved under the warm spray herself as their mouths met in a fierce kiss. She pulled away though as his hands went down to her thighs, before he could lift her against the wall. Not that she didn't love it when he did that—just that it wasn't what she had in mind for the time-being.

"I have a present for you."

"Oh?"

"A victory gift, if you like."

"I do like gifts."

"Well, soon you'll learn to like victory too."

With that, she put her hands on his thighs, and sank down onto her knees.

"Hellfire-"

"I want to."

While his face may have been shocked, though, from where she was—kneeling—there was one part of him getting rather excited. Helena couldn't hold back a grin. It would be the first time she'd tried a blow job, so she couldn't be entirely sure whether or not she was going to enjoy it. Experimentally, she leaned forward and kissed the head lingeringly, sucking a little. The muscles under her hands flexed, and his fingers immediately wound into her hair. She pushed forward a little more, swirling her tongue around before she pulled back, grinning. Interesting taste.

The more she took into her mouth, the weaker Sirius' ability to stand seemed to become. The rush didn't come from the taste—though that was by no means unpleasant—but from the knowledge that he was completely and utterly in her power. True, she was on her knees before him, but she most certainly had the upper hand. Although currently it was curling around the base of his length. She kept her eyes on his the whole time, lips wrapped around his cock and head moving rhythmically. She grew in confidence the longer it went on for, but still wasn't completely sure what she was doing. Eventually she decided to keep doing whatever he responded best to; whatever drew the loudest groans. She was fairly certain that at some point he was going to-

Sirius drew in another, deeper, shuddering breath. Helena recognised it as the time to pull back, though she didn't cease the movement of her hand. With a long, loud exhalation of her name, he came. The warm liquid landed on her chest, coating her breasts lightly before being washed away by the shower spray. Panting, Sirius leaned back against the tiles with a brilliant grin on his face.

Helena smiled back when he reached down a hand to pull her up. She grimaced a little at the soreness in her knees, but smiled again when he kissed her knuckles, then her mouth. "You've never done that before, have you?"

She shook her head. "That obvious?"

"In the best way," he assured, pulling her closer and kissing her again, more deeply this time. "What brought it on?"

"I felt like it. And I have to admit to being curious. I don't like you beating me at anything, Padfoot, you know that. And while you have me beaten on experience, the Kama Sutra had some tips I found useful for…inspiration."

"Well then I owe Vātsyāyana."

Helena raised an eyebrow. "I didn't even know you know what a book was for."

"I own a copy."

"Of course you do."

"And I read it enough to have some ideas on how to return the gift you've just given me."

Helena had a fair idea too, and twenty minutes later had been proven right. She really hoped the dormitory was sound-proofed so that her cries of pleasure could echo around the tower without embarrassment. The idea of her stifling them was almost completely ridiculous anyway—she'd known the boy had a talented tongue, but this-! Her hands were stuck in a death grip on the pillow under her head, simply because if she put them anywhere near Sirius' head she was going to tear his hair out. All thought had been swept aside in favour of pure, electric sensation. One orgasm was supposed to be the same as any other, surely, but the one that was spiking up from her spine was not going to be- be-

It finally ripped through her, forcing her back into an arch off the bed. It just seemed to go on, pleasure without end. And even hen she started breathing again, and her body had gone lax, her limbs still buzzed with the energy of it. She didn't bother opening her eyes, and shivered when Sirius came back up, running his fingers over her skin as he did so.

"Another first?"

She nodded breathlessly. "You can do it again any time you like though."

He chuckled. "I'm going to barely win matches in the future I think. Definitely worth it."

"No arguments here. Where did you- Actually, no, I don't want to know where you learned that."

"Probably not." She felt him stretch out next to her briefly. "Hungry?"

She was. But going to dinner involved getting up, and that involved moving, and that was something she was definitely incapable of at the moment. In fact even her toes weren't obeying her commands to move. She relaxed, far too comfortable and utterly unwound to care about it. Who needed food anyway?

"I'll let you get me something."

"You'll 'let me'?"

She cracked open an eye. "Come on, Padfoot, you're telling me you don't know how to get into the kitchens?"

"No."

"There you go then. You know where to find me when you get back."

She heard him roll his eyes, but he did get out of bed and dress. She managed to open her eyes long enough to watch his arse until it disappeared into his trousers. Once he was gone, the warmth of the bed and the endorphins still swimming around her system lulled her quickly to sleep.

Putting his quill down, James cast a doubtful eye over his potions essay. It wasn't brilliant, but he'd covered all the basic points on the effects of a Veritaserum overdose, and how to reverse it with the use of other potions. At least he had a free Sunday tomorrow. Along with the full moon tonight, he was going to need a lie-in. And a big dinner. Moony and Wormtail had already gone down to dinner, but he had a vague recollection of seeing Padfoot head upstairs with a girl—not at all unusual—about twenty minutes ago.

When he headed up the stairs to the boys' dormitory and all sound was blocked out by a muffled buzzing noise, he realised he'd been right. It was the rule that all the guys used in seventh year; if they had a girl up there, then they used the muffiliato spell so that no one else had to listen to the sex. With the curtains around the four-posters, it was a system that had worked perfectly for the last two years. Crossing the room, James put his potions essay into his trunk and made to go down the stairs. He stopped halfway across the room.

There was a gap in the curtains in Sirius' bed. And he didn't mean to look—but the gap revealed the sleeping face of the girl.

He managed to stumble back downstairs and onto a seat. Though he wasn't sure whether he'd sat on a sofa or the fire. No pain. The sofa then. Good. Still staring into space. Why would she-? Unless it was more innocent than it seemed? Somehow. Anyhow.

"Potter, you're on my hand. Potter? Potter!" A sigh. "Oi, James!"

Ooooh, that was a nice voice. He should answer that voice. He turned toward it; was vaguely surprised to find it was Lily speaking to him. "Yeah?"

She eyed him almost nervously. "Have you been cursed or something?"

"Um…maybe. Think I'm seeing things anyway."

"Seeing things?"

"Uh-huh." He still couldn't believe it. Helena.

"Like...?" Lily prompted.

"Um, there's a girl in our dormitory. In Sirius' bed."

Lily wrinkled her nose and went back to her Rune translation. "And how is that unusual?" she muttered.

"It's who the girl is."

Lily eyed him again. "Who is she?"

"He-"

He cut off as the portrait opened, admitting Sirius. James stood, suddenly unbelievably pissed off at his best friend. "You bastard," he said, quite matter-of-factly.

Sirius blinked. "Me? What've I done?"

"You do realise that after you screw and dump a girl, it's impossible for the rest of us to be friends with her, right?"

"Prongs-"

"And to do it to the only girl-mate we have- Don't you think you're being just a little bit selfish?"

"I'm not going to-"

It was Lily who interrupted this time. "Oh my God, you're not talking about Helena are you?"

"Yup!" James informed her. "She's upstairs, asleep. In his bed."

Her jaw dropped. "I'm going to kill her."

"You're going to kill who?"

James and Lily whipped around to see Helena at the foot of the boys' staircase, fully dressed but with her hair loose around her shoulders and her colour high. Her tie was in her hand, not around her neck, and the top few buttons of her blouse were still undone. Her expression was mildly curious to find Lily and James apparently on the same side of an argument.

Lily marched over to her. "Hel, tell me there's some other explanation, please."

"Other than…?"

"Other than you actually falling for Black's dubious charms and sleeping with him."

"There's another explanation," Helena assured calmly.

James was pretty sure there wasn't, but Lily breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank fuck for that. What is it?"

"I'm using him for sex." She passed a stunned Lily and moved to the fire, picking up a copy of A History of Magic and opening it to a bookmarked page.

It was almost a full minute before Lily or James moved. Then James found his voice. "You're...using him...for sex?"

"Yes."

Letting out a startled chuckle, James looked at his best friend. Sirius shrugged and nodded. "Sorry, mate."

"No worries. Done that essay for Slughorn yet?"

"Yeah. Just finished my conclusion."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

All heads turned to Lily. "This doesn't make any sense, and you're all acting like it's the most normal thing in the world! Helena, think—have you been confunded?"

"No, Lily, I'm feeling perfectly fine. More than fine actually," she added, with a sly glance at Sirius, who winked back.

"Has anyone given you anything suspicious to drink? An aphrodisiac maybe? I mean, have the house elves in the kitchens been giving you oysters or something?"

"Of course not. Lil-"

"What about strawberries? Or- or chocolate, even, that's supposed to be an aphrodisiac too! Or-"

Helena stood and shook Lily firmly. "Lily. You're getting hysterical. Calm down."

Lily nodded. It made the firelight catch her hair in a completely enchanting way, James noted. "Okay. I'm calm," she said. "So…really no potions or spells or aphrodisiacs?"

"Nope. Simple biology. And I promise you, I am in no danger of getting my heart broken."

"But you've slept with him!"

"Sleeping with, Lily, not slept. Don't have a heart attack, but this is going to happen again. Now I appreciate the concern, but you really don't have to worry about me."

"I might have to worry about communicable diseases!" she shot back. "I mean, do you know how many of the school sluts he's-"

"Yes, I'm quite aware. But you know me; I'm careful. At least in that area."

"But it's him! Girls just don't use him for sex!"

"Well, then it's about time someone did, isn't it?" Helena replied lightly. "Oh, Lily, even I know what's going on in the muggle world at the moment—feminism! Burning of bras and stuff! So isn't it time that spread to the wizarding world?"

"I'm all for birds taking their bras off and burning them," Sirius interjected casually.

Helena flicked her wand over her shoulder; next moment Sirius was wearing a hot pink lacy number while she went back to her conversation. "Female empowerment, right?"

Lily's eyes went to Sirius—he seemed to have having trouble undoing the clasps of a bra, which was strange considering just how many bras he'd undone in his time. She couldn't hold back a grin. "Right."

Helena beamed. "Great. Now come on, we're going to be late for dinner."

"One more thing though," her friend said, pointing her own wand at Sirius. He'd now gotten James to try and unhook the bra. Lily took careful aim and-

"Ow! Bloody hell, Evans, you almost took my eye out!"

"Now we can go to dinner."

A/N: Review please!