A/N: Thank you for the reviews!

Chapter Sixteen

"Please."

"No."

"C'mon, Hellfire, you've had it for a whole week!"

Putting her helmet on the seat of her bike, Helena put her hands on her hips and frowned at him. As had been the usual situation recently, his throat went completely dry again at the sight of this…biker goddess, and he completely forgot whatever he'd been saying a second ago. Therefore her next words took a little bit of time before he fully understood them.

"Look, Padfoot, you want to give me half of the money, then of course you can ride it. But until that point, it's my bike, and I'll ride it."

"Her."

"What?"

"It's a her."

Helena looked at him as though he'd lost his mind. "It's an inanimate object."

"Yeah, but all mechanical things are she's. Like boats."

"Whatever. You're still not riding her."

"You're just…mean, that's what you are."

"How articulate. Now are you quite done? Because we're supposed to meet Lily and James in twenty minutes and we still have to get through London traffic."

"Alright, alright."

"Good."

Helena kicked her much-better-sounding much-better-looking bike into life and roared off down the street. Sirius followed suit with his—though at least he had the comfort of a cushioning charm, as well as several other modifications he'd added to his own bike. Helena hadn't thought of doing that yet, so for the moment he had the advantage over her as far as long journey's went. She had cast an extra-sensory perception charm on herself though, which was always useful before going into central London on a bike. Checking no muggles were around, Sirius pulled his wand out and performed the same magic on himself before following her.

James and Lily were waiting for them outside Eeylops, hand in hand with Lily rolling her eyes at Helena. "Tell me you didn't come on that deathtrap."

Deadpan, Helena replied, "I didn't come on that deathtrap."

More eye rolling, but the four of them went into the Leaky Cauldron for lunch. It had been a tradition for all of a week, but somehow Sunday lunch with the four of them in the pub had the feeling of being a life-long tradition, something they'd still be doing in thirty years' time. Good food and good butterbeer went a long way to everyone having a good time—but at three thirty Lily looked at her watch and cursed.

"Crap! The shops shut in an hour and it's Mum's birthday tomorrow! Come on, James!"

"But I haven't finished my-"

"I can finish it for you, mate," Sirius grinned, picking up James' half-full butterbeer.

Prongs had time enough to glare, but not much more time for that before Lily dragged him up out of his seat and grabbed his hand. "See you guys later!"

"Bye."

Helena grinned at their retreating forms, and then shook her head. "So when did that happen?"

"Around mid-February. James asked her out Valentine's Day and she said yes. Strength to strength from then on really."

She beamed. "Well I'm sorry I missed it, but it's brilliant."

"It is," he agreed. "Don't think I've ever seen either of them happier."

"This is just weird," Helena sighed. "I feel like I should be revising, not sitting drinking butterbeer. I mean, I suppose it's a good thing I don't remember the exams and being all stressed out—though I imagine if I got stressed a lot you got laid a lot, so-" she cut off at the expression on his face. "What?"

"Well, it's just that…by the NEWTs we weren't…"

"Why not?" she asked. "Did the sex get boring? Oh no, I didn't get a boyfriend did I?"

"No, it wasn't that."

"Did you get a girlfriend? A real one?"

He chuckled. "No."

"Then what? What happened to the friends with benefits thing?"

Sirius glanced down, fingers tracing patterns on the table. "We were…suddenly not friends anymore."

"What? Why?"

"You tell me. You must have had your reasons, but after your suicide attempt-"

"Suicide attempt?"

He winced. Shit, shit, shit. Helena was agape, eyes wide with horror. "Yeah, but- Helena, I never- I mean you didn't-"

"Why would I-?"

He took her hand. "I don't know. None of us knew, you never said a word. But you nearly died. Afterward, you…became distant," he finished. It wasn't the truth, but he couldn't bear telling her the truth. Not now there was a chance for… Helena was still staring at him, still apparently horrified. He squeezed her fingers. "Hellfire, whatever it was, you don't remember it. Don't get me wrong, I'll still kick Bellatrix's arse for cursing you next time I see her, but…you're back. We've got you back." He tried not to think it, but it happened anyway: I've got you back.

"I'm so sorry," she murmured. "I don't know what could possess me to do that."

"Doesn't matter," he said firmly.

"How can it not matter? I can't imagine myself so unhappy that I'd want to end my life—can't imagine you would let me get that unhappy."

"I'm sorry I did. I promise, Helena, I won't again."

When she kissed him, it was like all the birds in London singing at once. It was just gratitude, he could taste that much. She hadn't missed him; there had been no time for her in order to miss him. He found he didn't mind, but by God, he had missed her. Had she always tasted like honey? The violets he remembered well, but it didn't stop his inner padfoot from revelling in the scent anyway, reeling in it.

He carried on kissing her for as long as she'd let him, reluctant to let her go before he'd memorised the feel of her in his arms. When she made a tiny noise of pleasure deep in her throat, arousal crashed through him.

Helena pulled back, her eyes sparkling. "My place?"

Her place, his tent, up against a wall—suddenly the need to be inside her had overwhelmed everything else. He almost splinched himself apparating to her house, his concentration most definitely not on where he needed to be. Helena had somehow managed to take her top off in the half a second longer she'd been in the house, and was quickly shedding her bra.

He had no idea how he crossed the study floor to her, but the next second his mouth was against hers and he was backing her up against the desk, hands on her shoulders and fingers not exactly gripping gently. It didn't seem to matter—Helena had already ripped his t-shirt from his back, and her tongue was dancing with his while her fingers undid his fly. He pulled his mouth away from hers to move it down her neck and to her breasts. Urgency wouldn't let him take all the time he wanted to, so he went straight to her pebbled nipples. Helena didn't seem to mind though; she moaned loudly when his tongue swirled around, and when his teeth nipped gently she arched her back into his mouth. Her fingers raked through his hair, holding his head where it was. Her hips bucked unconsciously, legs coming up to wrap around his. He drew away long enough to drop his jeans and pull her trousers off before coming back again. Face buried in his neck, she cried out as he thrust into her. He almost came right then and there; she was wet, but she was tighter than he ever remembered her being, so much so that he thought he'd hurt her. But when he saw her face, she had a wide, if breathless, smile all over it. She leaned back onto the desk, her hands gripping the edges with white knuckles. Her hips carried on pumping up and down though, and with every move into her, she clenched around him. Her feet dug into the backs of his thighs and arse in a vain effort to get him closer, pull him deeper. Both their cries echoed around the room as they got closer to climax—his hand went down to where they were joined, thumb rubbing at her clit. The reaction was instantaneous: for the first time, they came together, Helena arching almost completely off the desk while he let go with a long groan of her name. Helena shuddered for what seemed like a long time, tiny, breathy moans escaping her lips. He leaned down, kissing his way up her body and enjoying the increased shivers that were her reaction.

Finally he reached her mouth. "I missed you."

"I can tell," she grinned.

They lay against each other for a few more minutes, his head pillowed on her chest while his legs turned to jelly. Then his cock decided it wasn't finished. Surprising both of them, it began twitching and swelling again against her thigh. Helena looked at him with wide eyes. "Really-?"

"Told you I'd missed you." He pulled back and picked her up, not bothering with the scattered clothes. Helena shrieked in surprise, but didn't put up any resistance as he started upstairs and to the master bedroom. He placed her at the foot of the bed, smiling as she held out her arms for him.

All at once a thoughtful, almost soulful, expression appeared on his face. She rose to her knees on the bed so that their faces were level. He reached out to touch her face with gentle hands, smoothing through her hair and looking at her as though he hadn't seen her in months. Which, for him, was true. When he kissed her, it was like he was memorising her taste. He pushed her back onto the bed and moved up her body until he lay the length of hers, hip to hip. Looking into his eyes, something told her she should let him take the lead, let him choose how he wanted her—and also that he just wanted to give her as much pleasure as he could. He threaded their fingers together and slid her hands up above her head nudging her legs apart. She brought them up to cinch around his waist. He kissed her at the same time he as he pushed into her. There remained some tiny lingering soreness from his rushed entry before, but he kept his thrusts slow, but deliciously deep. Soon all discomfort vanished, and the ball of pleasure at the base of her spine began slowly unfurling. Sirius kept their mouths together, kissing her without hesitation or scruple. There was no attempt to hide anything he might be feeling. Something in Helena shied away from thinking too much about just what that could be; thankfully that ball of bliss was now winding sinuously up her back, extending into her limbs. Her fingers tightened around his as her back arched.

"Sirius…"

She wanted to tell him to move just a little faster, just a little harder. She was so close, all her nerves stretched to breaking point, so taut she was in danger of losing her mind altogether. Her lover refused all her silent efforts to speed this experience up, and when her orgasm finally hit, it was longer and more intense than any she'd even felt. It struck her completely dumb even while her heart rocketed out of her chest. She could only hold onto the only steady thing she had: Sirius. She was vaguely aware of arms and legs that weren't connected to her trembling violently, and then a parallel shudder running through him, though his was accompanied with a long, low groan of her name. She felt white heat fill her as he came, and then had to squeeze her eyes shut again when aftershocks came, rippling through her bones.

Sirius wrapped his arms around her and pressed kisses to her forehead, her cheeks, her nose and her mouth. She suddenly felt…precious. Cherished. Letting go of her hands, he moved behind her, one arm curled around her waist and the other supporting her head. And then he did something that, if anyone had told her a year ago that Sirius Black would be doing, she would have burst into giggles. He cuddled.

Now was not a year ago though, and Helena wasn't giggling, she was a little bit unsettled. Sleeping together at every opportunity was one thing, and yes they spent a lot of time together, but he'd never done that before. Tender, affectionate gestures were reserved exclusively for Christmas and birthdays. And here he was having just—she had no other word term for it—made love to her, and now he wanted to hold her in his arms? What in blue bloody hell was going on?

He shifted a little behind her, pulling her slightly closer. Helena swallowed, suddenly quite afraid for reasons she couldn't name. Quickly, she rolled out of bed and got up, reaching for her robe on the chair by the window.

"Phew, I needed that!" she said as cheerfully as possible, like she wasn't having her emotions shaken. "Drink?" she tossed casually over her shoulder.

"Um, yeah, okay."

She winced at his bewildered tone but didn't turn around, instead going downstairs with her heart pounding—just ever so slightly. When she got the drinks, she went back upstairs again but crossed to her desk, pulling the first roll of parchment she found on it over to her and putting herself into an attitude of studied concentration.

Sirius propped himself up on his elbow, frowning. "Aren't you coming back to bed?"

She shook her head. "I want to run over my arguments for the meeting with Head of Admissions tomorrow."

It wasn't a lie—the morning after she was going to St Mungo's for ten a.m., to try and convince them to reverse her earlier insane choice to turn down the Junior Healer place they'd offered her. She still had no idea what on earth could have possessed her to do that, but she definitely had: at her request they'd sent her a copy of the letter she'd sent them, and it was her handwriting alright.

Sirius got out of bed and joined her over by the desk. He kissed the back of her shoulder. "So what are your arguments?"

"Namely that I wasn't of sound mind when I made the decision. Lily's agreed to be a character witness for me, and from what you've said…I couldn't really have been less myself, could I?"

He shook his head. "Good way to put it."

"And I may not know what caused it, but that works in my favour. It's literally been wiped out. I'm now in a practical frame of mind, extremely receptive to learning, and my NEWT results prove I'm more than capable. And this is my life's ambition. The idea that I'd just give it up is ridiculous. It'd be like you ending up in Azkaban or something."

He snorted. "They've allowed the use of Unforgiveables on Death Eaters, Hellfire."

"Yeah…"

"You don't agree?"

"Well, I trust people like you and James; I know you won't abuse it. But you have to admit it could easily be abused. I don't see anything wrong with legalising the killing curse for aurors but not the other two. I mean, what's the Crutiatus curse going to give you?"

"Information," he answered. "Locations or identities. You won't be criticising it if it leads to Voldemort's capture or death will you?"

She shook her head. "Sirius, I'd think you'd know better than to expect truth to come from torture. And the idea of the Imperius curse is just terrifying."

"Moody reckons it should be taught in schools," he told her. "He thinks no one should be allowed to leave Hogwarts without the ability to throw it off."

"D'you think he could?" Helena joked.

"He could probably throw off all three of them at once."

"Hero-worship much? Calm down, Padfoot, you can't replace him yet, he's not that close to retirement."

Sirius grinned, but shook his head. "No, I wouldn't want to replace him. I can't imagine being that paranoid—the bloke doesn't have friends, a wife—I mean, he's pretty clear he trusts Dumbledore, but he's probably the only person."

"That's quite sad." She looked up, suddenly a bit worried. "You're not going to get like that, are you?"

He laughed. "You know me, Hellfire. I'm not one for solitude."

"Good." She sighed. "How's the house-hunting going?"

"Not well. Most places want one month's rent in advance, which just isn't going to happen. And I know they'd never say it, but I'm intruding on the Potters now. Especially with Mr Potter being ill."

"Ill?"

"Yeah, he's really not well. They're not sure what the problem is yet, but I just think having a non-family member in the house has to be a bit of a strain for them."

"Well...why don't you move in here?" she asked, shrugging.

He raised an eyebrow. "You want me to move in with you?"

"Sirius, you can't live in a tent for the rest of your life—it'll be another month before your first wage comes in, and until then you can't afford anywhere. I'm offering, because of the sheer depth of my natural magnanimity, to let you live with me, rent-free. We'll move up from friends with benefits to housemates with benefits."

"Alright then, sure."

"Cool. Keep in mind, though, that it's temporary. I'm not having you squatting at mine forever."

"Squatting? What happened it being an invitation?"

"I forgot how revolting you are."

"It's a wonder you let me touch you."

"It is, isn't it? You'd better not try again though."

They grinned at each other for half a second before he leapt for her—and his arms closed around thin air instead of a laughing woman. The woman was still laughing, she was just laughing on the other side of the room. "Apparating is definitely not allowed."

"When did we decide that?"

He still managed to catch her though, and pull her back to the bed.

"Don't look so nervous," Lily whispered to her. "You'll be fine."

Helena nodded, but smoothed down her robes anyway, gnawing on her bottom lip. "What if-"

"Helena. Stop it."

"Yeah. Sorry."

"They are not going to say no. How could they, with four O's and an E in your NEWTs?"

All too easily, Helena thought, but didn't voice it. At this point Lily would probably end up slapping some sense into her—not that she was doubtful of that solution working, but having one scarlet cheek would probably not help in her argument that she was now a sensible candidate. The two young witches were waiting outside the office of the Admissions Officer for St Mungo's, waiting to be shown in so that Helena could plead her case. When the door opened, the woman who stood there immediately reminded Helena of Professor McGonagall. It didn't help her nerves.

"Helena Malfoy? I'm Susannah O'Shaunessy."

She was given a perfunctory handshake and then introduced her friend. "This is Lily Evans; we went to Hogwarts together and she'd due to start as a Junior Healer in July. She's my character witness, if you require one."

"Thoughtful," O'Shaunessy remarked. "Well, come inside. Miss Evans, we'll call you if we need you."

She indicated a seat to Helena and sat next to her rather than across her desk. "I understand you wish to reverse your decision to decline the place you were offered."

"Yes."

"You realise this is highly unusual. Normally you would be required to apply again for next year."

"I'm aware of that," Helena nodded, "and I very much appreciate you seeing me."

"Now you may tell me what you want."

"Well, I want you to admit me for the post I gave up." She gave a self-conscious smile. "I realise how ridiculous that sounds, but as I'm sure you're aware, I was recently treated at this hospital for a combined memory charm-stunner. It appears the Death Eater who cursed me is particularly inept at Charms, because she only managed to wipe out the last six months, rather than destroy my identity altogether. In those six months, I appeared to have undergone some kind of personality shift, during which-"

"-You declined your place here."

'Yes. And I also tried-"

"-to commit suicide, I know. The school nurse at Hogwarts was good enough to send me your medical records when I requested them. So what is your argument?"

"That I was clearly not of sound mind when I declined the offer. Becoming a healer is a life's ambition for me. I've never wanted to be an auror, or a teacher, or go into administration of law enforcement or politics. Healing is the only thing I've wanted to do since I was in third year. Unless there was something mentally wrong with me, I would never have turned down the opportunity."

"I see you have excellent NEWT results," O'Shaunessy remarked, looking over her glasses. "That bodes well."

"Thank you."

O'Shaunessy sighed, and then put the papers down, pushed her glasses up and folded her hands. "Ordinarily this would be completely out of the question, you realise. In fact were it not for the fact that we have an unusually low number of applicants this year, I would still reject your application."

"So does that mean I'm admitted?" Helena asked, struggling to contain the smile that threatened to burst across her face.

"Yes. But know that I will be watching you most carefully. Whatever this mental instability was, if you show the slightest hint of it from now on, you will be pronounced unsuitable for further study and you will be expelled from healer training. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Prof- Yes."

When she opened the door, Lily looked terrified, hands to her mouth. She stood. "Well?"

"She let me in! I'm going to be studying with you!" Helena trilled.

Lily gave a little skip and clapped. "Yes! I knew it, I knew they couldn't keep you out!" She took Helena's hands and almost forced her into a little dance, though thankfully she managed to keep it to just one full spin around. Still holding her hand, Lily turned and almost dragged her out of the hospital. "Come on, we're going to James'. There's a celebration party waiting for you!"

"A celeb- But, Lily, I didn't know until thirty seconds ago that I was being let in!"

"Well it was obvious!"

The celebration was basically a big dinner that Mrs Potter had cooked her socks off preparing, partly for Helena's good news and partly because Sirius now had somewhere else to live. They ate in the garden, the summer air warm and calming. James' father was absent, and when asked the younger Potter just gave a somewhat weak smile and said, "He's in hospital." Seeing that he obviously didn't want to talk about it, Helena backed off.

Once the lasagne, garlic bread and salad had been polished off, Mrs Potter excused herself, leaving them to help themselves to strawberries and Cornish clotted cream. When they were all too full to move, Sirius did something insane, and suggested Quidditch. Of course James had no problem agreeing to that—with an even more alarming degree of enthusiasm than he usually did—and set about physically placing Lily on a broom. The glare on Helena's face stopped him from trying the same thing with her.

"I'll referee."

"But you don't know the first thing about the rules," Padfoot pointed out.

"Yeah, but I can do it from the ground, where I can't fall off anything."

The light lasted until almost ten p.m., but they were still going once pale pink and gold had been replaced by navy blue and starlight, simply because James hadn't caught the snitch yet. There was a very good reason for that—he wasn't playing seeker, as for some reason that he wasn't explaining, he wanted Lily to fill that role. Finally though, as the crescent moon broke through, she got it. Sirius was incredibly relieved, Helena had long since got a chair for herself and had been topping up her glass of wine for the last couple of hours quite happily. James though, still seemed incredibly nervous. Once they'd landed on the ground again, Lily held the snitch out to him.

He shook his head and swallowed hard. "Open it."

She raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Open it."

"…how?"

"You have to kiss it," he explained a bit sheepishly.

Looking increasingly dubious, Lily did so, and the snitch popped open. Her jaw dropped, her eyes widened almost comically and she drew in a huge gasp. Then her eyes flew to James' face. "Are- Is this- James-!"

Helena and Sirius exchanged a puzzled look, but it all became very clear when James took the snitch carefully from Lily, and dropped to one knee. Out of the snitch, he took an emerald ring. "I know it seems quick," he said, eyes fixed on Lily, "but I love you, Lily Evans. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. And life's too short to be with a woman as amazing as you, and not tell the whole world. So: will you marry me?"

Helena glanced at Padfoot, who looked as surprised (but delighted) as she felt. He shook his head at her and mouthed, He didn't say a word. Neither Lily nor James noticed the motion; they only had eyes for each other. The rest of the world could have ceased to exist and Helena was sure it would go unnoticed.

Lily nodded and took her hands away from her mouth. "Yes," she said. Then a massive grin spread over her face. "Yes, yes, yes!"

With a joyful laugh, James took her hand and slid the ring onto it. Then Lily was in his arms, kissing the living daylights out of him. All Helena and Sirius could do was offer congratulations—which quite rightly were utterly ignored for several minutes.

A/N: Review please!