A/N: Thank you for the reviews!

Chapter Six

Mary MacDonald was proving unexpectedly difficult to charm. He'd done all the normal things—gone out of his way to attract her attention, offered to help with carrying her books from class to class, paid her compliments…and so far, it had made her blush, they'd gone down to Hogsmeade together and held hands and done general coupley things. But when it came to physical intimacy, she backed off. It had occurred to him that she was probably still a virgin. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. She wouldn't be the first he'd…deflowered in his time, but that was before everything got so bloody jaded, before he kept getting bored all the sodding time. The only way he even found sex appealing anymore was when it was just sex. It was why he was enjoying it with Helena so much. Uncomplicated.

The timing of Mary's wooing wasn't exactly brilliant either. They both had mock-NEWTs before the Christmas holidays, and those grades would be what went on job applications. Failing them might mean becoming an auror would have to wait another six months. Meant living in a tent for another half a year. Not that the Potters had ever been anything but generous and kind—but it would be nice to have his own place.

Putting so much effort into the budding romance with Mary meant that his schoolwork was feeling the pinch. Normally missing essay deadlines didn't matter, but this close to any kind of exams the professors were always tense. And even the friendliest of them did not now appreciate his levity about it all. In the space of two lessons, both Slughorn and McGonagall had utterly lost their temper at him, the latter threatening to go straight to Dumbledore and recommend he be removed from the school altogether. They had many committed students; one lay-about would drag the rest down. He really hoped Mary MacDonald was worth all this trouble.

By the time St Andrew's Day came around, Mary did seem to be finally softening up. He was enjoying her company. She wasn't that irritating when she wasn't talking, and she had nice hair and after eight weeks of being with him, she wasn't a bad kisser either. But she was still reserved. And he still couldn't help comparing her to Helena, all the time in Helena's favour. Mary kissed gently, timidly. Helena, even when she was nervous, had never been timid. And she had never held anything back. Mary held almost everything back.

But apparently not tonight.

When she took his hand, he wondered briefly if she'd been drinking. But there was no taste or smell of alcohol on her breath when she kissed him. They got as far as undressing him before the vestiges of his conscience woke up. When her fingers went down to his trousers, his stopped them.

She looked up, startled. "What's wrong?"

Yeah, what is wrong? a pissed-off voice asked. Was this actually him about to pass up the chance of getting laid. What? While his brain struggled to find a reason for this ridiculous pause, his mouth was struggling to string an explanation together. "It- It's just- Just that-"

Mary dropped her hands with a sigh and a nod. "I think I understand."

She did? Great, maybe she could explain it to him.

"You want to wait."

"I what?"

"It's okay, Sirius. I understand. And I don't mind, really—we both have exams to pass and your ambitions mean a lot to you."

"Well, that's true…"

She kissed him. "I couldn't claim to care about you and take your focus away from that. So, after we finish, we can pick up again. I'll wait for you, I promise I will."

Utterly bewildered now, Sirius just nodded. Mary gathered her clothes and left. He was still completely confused as to what had, and how that, had just happened. And why he'd let it. He still hadn't found an answer when he went downstairs ten minutes later to seek answers in the flickering common room fire. There were about a dozen people down there, but only one who attracted his attention: Helena. She hadn't noticed him come down, apparently too deep in whatever work it was she was doing.

She was sat much closer to the fire than he was, quill scribbling furiously away on the parchment. It couldn't be comfortable; it was still unseasonably warm for being nearly winter, and judging by the amount of ink-covered paper hanging off the other side of the table, she'd been there for a while. He could see sweat beading along her forehead from here, but Helena didn't seem to have noticed. Then she started shedding layers. She was still reading as she did it, so her movements were slow—and if he didn't know better, teasing—as she pulled off the top part of her robes. The cardigan she wore underneath, that was next. Then her tie. Sirius felt himself grow a little tenser with the loss of each layer, his body reacting a little more with the more skin which was revealed. When her fingers went up to undo the top two buttons of her blouse, he had to swallow hard. Suddenly he'd missed the feel of her incredibly. It was like watching her do an tortuously slow striptease. An tortuously slow, ridiculously sexy striptease.

Fingertips sliding into the neckline of her blouse to briefly scratch an itch, Helena remained unaware of his gaze. She put her quill down, reaching to the pile of books stacked crazily in front of her. From the frown on her face, she couldn't find the book she was looking for.

"Oh piss," she muttered.

She got up and headed to the door, not bothering to take her outer school robes with her. He guessed she was headed to the library, but as long as at some point in that journey she was alone, he didn't care. And sure enough, she ducked through a hidden passageway behind a tapestry which cut off two floors. He wasn't far behind her. In an echo of what she'd done a few weeks ago, he grabbed her hand suddenly. Rather than jump, Helena turned with a grin.

He went to kiss her; she turned her head at the last second so that his lips met her neck rather than her lips. "I take it you missed me?" she whispered, brushing her mouth against his but refusing to kiss him.

He pressed his hips firmly against hers. "Does that answer your question?"

His fingers were just on the point of hooking themselves through her underwear when the tapestry was pulled back again. Almost knowing who they'd see, both of them turned their heads at the same time. Mary stared right back, her face paling fast and her expression a mix of horror and mortification.

Well…this was awkward. Still, at least she'd interrupted them at the kissing/groping stage. A moment or two later and she really would have been treated to a show. After staring for no more than five seconds, Mary turned on her heel and almost ran away.

Helena shoved Sirius away from her. "You didn't break up with her, did you?"

"Yes, of course I did!"

"When?"

"About…fifteen minutes ago."

"Padfoot! For God's sake! You couldn't have controlled yourself for one day at least? Even a couple of hours would have been better!"

"Well it wasn't exactly helped with you doing your striptease in the common room! You knew exactly what you were doing to me-"

"How is it my fault if I'm better than you assumed I was going to be?" she demanded. "I'm not responsible for you missing me, Sirius—I never asked you to leave my bed for some other girl's! If you didn't find spice in variety, it's not my problem."

He shook his head. "Helena, you said this wasn't going to be a issue! But you're getting emotional about this after all, aren't you?"

She laughed. "I am, but not over you, you cocky bastard! I'm fucking angry that I have to look like the bad guy because you can't keep it in your trousers! If you want to continue leaving a mess of human wreckage, Sirius, you go ahead, but don't use me as your excuse to do it!"

With that, she stormed off, leaving Sirius by himself to wonder how, in as many hours, he'd managed to strike out twice.

Helena managed to last the whole of the next day without finding herself alone with Mary or Sirius. She was still pissed off as hell with the latter, and feeling awkward about the former. Going to bed early though, Helena found herself sharing the dormitory with Mary, and only Mary. She avoided eye contact as much as possible, and didn't say anything. The other girl was the first to break the silence.

"It's not going to work you know," she suddenly said.

"What isn't?" Helena asked.

"This trick to get Sirius interested, fucking with his head like this-"

"Fucking with his head?" she repeated, genuinely puzzled. "How am I fucking with his head?"

Mary folded her arms and glared narrow-eyed at her. "He broke up with me to focus on his exams because being an auror is everything to him- What is so funny?"

Helena couldn't help at; halfway through Mary's sentence she'd burst out laughing, and now couldn't stop. "Oh, Mary. Poor, sweet, deluded Mary. How have you done it?"

"Done what?" the other girl snapped.

"Gotten to seventh year without any of the teachers realising how monumentally stupid you are."

Mary gaped briefly. "How dare you-"

"Mary, this is what he's always done. The fact that NEWTs are this year just provides a good excuse. I can't believe you haven't figured that out."

Blotches of colour appeared high on Mary's cheeks. "Well you can't expect any better," she said nastily. "No one buys the cow if they can get the milk for free."

Helena chuckled again, more gently this time. "Who said the cow was for sale? Despite whatever comforting platitudes your mother has drilled into your skull, my dear, sleeping with a man does not mean that a woman wants to marry him. And given the age we live in, the idea that men 'buy' their wives is not a terribly healthy attitude, wouldn't you agree? Believe me, I have no interest in him beyond the physical. I'm afraid your jealousy is misplaced. Just like your nose."

Mary fled with room sobbing.

"I didn't mean to make her cry," Helena explained to a furious Lily later that evening, "but you know I don't have any time for women like that. She didn't even have the courage of her convictions to hit me. You would have hit me."

"True, but you know Mary's not as…as…tough as you. If she was happy believing that Black dumped her not because he got bored but because his 'work' was so important then where's the harm in that?"

"She didn't believe it!" Helena protested. "If she'd believed it, she would have hit me! All I did was open her eyes to how pathetic she was being so that she can move on to the rest of her life without falling into the beds of men like Sirius Black. And hopefully stop listening to the absurd advice of her idiotic mother."

Lily glared a little more, and Helena felt her eyebrows begin to smoulder. "But I will of course apologise to her."

"Good." She carried on glaring.

"You want me to go now?"

"Yes I want you to go now!"

"Urgh, fine. But I am doing this for you, Lily, you realise that?"

"I do. Mary's still in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom."

Sighing, Helena left the common room and went upstairs to the bathroom. She sighed as she reached the door. "Oh bollocks."

Mary was sitting on the edge of one of the sinks, sniffing loudly and sobbing quietly. "Oh go away, Malfoy."

"I came to say I'm sorry. I had a bad day and I took it out on you," Helena lied.

"No, you're right," Mary said thickly, wiping her cheeks free of thick black mascara tracks. "He's a complete bastard."

"Complete bastard," Helena echoed.

"I j-just th-thought he'd…" The rest of her sentences was lost in sobs. Helena approached cautiously, hearing a few snatches like, "disgrace to womankind" and "such an idiot". She privately agreed with every self-deprecatory thing that Mary said, but since Lily would curse her silly if she voiced her opinions, she kept silent and conjured the odd tissue when required. It was an exercise of sheer will, she kept telling herself. Will and patience. Despite all best efforts, though, she couldn't find any real sympathy for Mary. She was whiny, blind and not especially intelligent, but had been arrogant enough—as had all the others—to believe that she could change another person's character. Finally Mary ran out of tears, and Helena was able to bundle her off to bed without giving into the frustrations that had built to breaking point in her head.

Once Mary was in bed, she went back downstairs. "Was it as bad as you thought?" Lily asked kindly.

"Million times worse. You owe me," Helena said, walking quickly across the room toward the portrait. "But you can pay me back later."

"Where are you going?"

"Where do you think I'm going?" she muttered, the Fat Lady swinging shut behind her. "I definitely deserve to get laid after that…"

The map showed him in the astronomy tower; Helena used a shortcut to get there. The tower was empty, as it was only just sunset. The stars wouldn't be visible for a good hour yet, though Venus was making her ascent. Sirius was alone in there, cloth in hand and cleaning the lenses of each telescope individually by hand, she assumed for a detention. Helena locked the door behind her.

"I have no idea how you managed to get Mary MacDonald to shut up long enough to sleep with her."

He grinned, putting the cloth down. "I have my ways."

Helena sighed, and moved over to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "Well then you'll have to tell them to me."

"Or I could show you."

"That could work."

She kissed him deeply, fingers already working at his fly. Hands lifting her skirt, he walked them backward to one of the high stools next to the telescopes. Helena straddled his lap, finding him already hard for her. She couldn't help the moan which left her throat; she had missed him, more than she'd wanted to admit. He unbuttoned her blouse but didn't try and take her bra off. Instead he tugged down the cups, revealing each breast and thumbing her nipples. Arching her back, Helena sank down onto him anything but slowly. They moved fast, Helena's skin feeling too much like it was on fire to enjoy a slow, sexy screw. Time for that later; for now it was just a race to climax. Back in her hot, tight wetness, Sirius realised he was too close to the edge too fast to make sure she orgasmed before him. A few strokes at her clit took care of that, though. It pushed her over the edge at the same time he crashed over it, groaning her name.

He took no small satisfaction at hearing how ragged her breathing was, or how liquid she'd gone against him. Head against his shoulder, hair streaming down her back, she sighed happily. "…that's much better…"

She shivered when he pinched her nipple and nipped her neck. "Damn you, woman. No one else does that to me."

"Told you."

"Yesterday you hated me—what changed your mind?"

"I haven't. You're still a bastard," she said, matter-of-fact. "I just didn't realise how much of a cowbag she was."

"I didn't actually sleep with her, you know."

She pulled back, staring. "You didn't?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Unsure. Possibly something like conscience."

"Oh." She paused. "Are you really going to fail Transfiguration?"

"Nah. I'll just pull something out of my hat."

"Best not a rabbit though," she smiled.

"What?"

"Something Lily told me. Apparently it's what muggle magicians do. Pull rabbits out of hats."

"Why?"

She shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. They don't really do it, of course, but…" Another silence while they disengaged their bodies. Dressing—or rather straightening her clothes—she asked, "Does James really like her? Lily, I mean. Or is it just that she's like Mary to you—a hill that can't be climbed?"

"No, he really does like her. Maybe even loves her. Why?" he asked curiously. "She's not warming up to him is she?"

"No, but she doesn't dislike him as much as she says," Helena shrugged. "I think it actually is her being stubborn. That's quite annoying. Especially since she'd never admit it if you asked."

Sirius gasped in mock horror. "You're not actually thinking of breaking your sacred rule of neutrality are you, Hellfire?"

"Not breaking it, just…thinking about it."

Apparently she wasn't the only one who'd been thinking about it. Three days later, while practicing her Transfiguration, James came up to her with a rather desperate expression on his face.

"Help me."

Helena looked up from transfiguring her quill into a magpie. "With what?"

"With Lily."

"Ah. No."

His face fell. "No?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because she's my friend. And so far I've managed to survive by not picking a side. I'm not about to start now. Regenarisa."

With a caw, the quill grew a magpie. Which then set about looking for shiny things. Helena removed an earring for it to examine before it could take it from her ear. James took a snitch out of his pocket too.

"Please, Hel. Don't you want Lily to be happy?"

"Of course I do."

"And don't you want me to be happy?"

"Yes."

"There you are then."

"You're assuming I believe you can make each other happy."

"I know Lily could make me happy," James said emphatically. Then his face fell. "Hang on, are you saying I couldn't make her happy?"

"Look, James, as a friend, you're brilliant," she said frankly. "You're fun, and funny, and clever, and brave and loyal. But as boyfriend material? All of that is completely negated by the fact that you know it."

His face fell. "All of it?"

"Yes. If anything, the good things combine to become one huge turn-off."

He frowned indignantly and gestured at where Sirius was busy showing off by sending conjured songbirds over to Emily Sanders, where they tweeted prettily around her head. "Hang on—you're sleeping with him!"

"Yes, and that's why it's just sex," she said. "There's no way I'd want him as a boyfriend. Arrogance can be sexy, but it's never something you want around for long. And you want to be around Lily for a while, don't you?"

"Yes!"

"Then you can't carry on as you have been."

"Alright, then what do I need to change?"

Helena put down her wand, turned to face him appraisingly. "Honestly?"

"Yes."

"First, scale down your arrogance."

"I'm not that bad-"

"James, if you'd been on the Titanic, it wouldn't have been sunk by the iceberg, it wouldn't have been able to take the weight of your ego," she smirked. "We all know you're good at Quidditch—the whole house turns out to watch every match, including Lily. She doesn't need to be told what won the match against Hufflepuff two summers ago and she doesn't need to know why that catch you made on the twenty seventh was so amazing."

"Point taken."

"Secondly: stop hexing people for fun. That includes Slytherins. Especially Snape."

"Snape?" James spluttered. "He called her a-" he lowered his voice, "he called her a mudblood!"

"Yes, and for some reason that upset her more than it should have done, it didn't make her angry," Helena said patiently. "Don't ask me why, James, I don't know. I think he's as much of a slimeball as you do. But you need to stop hexing for fun. Defend yourself if you're attacked, fine, but stop picking on people."

"I still don't get why Slytherins are exempt from this."

"Think about it. Why would Lily want a guy she knows can be cruel? Not only cruel, but can find amusement in it? Especially in these times."

"Hold on, are you comparing me to a Death Eater?" James demanded, looking really angry for the first time.

"No. I'm comparing you to a wanker."

He folded his arms and looked annoyed, but didn't argue further. Helena wasn't done yet though, and when his hand went up toward his head, she grabbed his wrist. "James, for the love of everything holy, for the sake of Merlin's beard, stop playing with your hair. Just stop. It's annoying. And it makes you look like a prat at best, at worst a little camp."

James gaped. "Ca-"

"Yes. Get over it."

"Anything else?" he snapped.

"Just one. Don't ask her out again for a while. If you really are going to change, then you need to give Lily some time to see that change, otherwise there's no point in it."

"How long is a while?"

"Until after the Christmas Holidays. That way she'll have had another few weeks to see the change, and another three to think about it, so that by the time we get back she'll have missed you and then you're golden as a galleon. Think you can handle that?"

She patted his shoulder and then changed the magpie back into a quill before it could swallow the earring she'd given it.

A/N: Review please!