Hey! So, we're finishing up OWLs and we all know what's coming (hint, Snape's involved, even though this is one of the first times we've seen him so far).

Anyway, sorry if you don't like smut-like scenes, but they're really just there for comedic relief or plot as we get further and further into the war (this chapter it's comedic relief)

Read and Review!

Love, Essie

Oh, before I forget, someone asked me if Dany's visions ever go away and if she still has them in Feel Again. So, the answer is that she doesn't have them in Feel Again because (as I said in the chapter they were introduced) they don't last past the early 20s. We haven't seen any of them in a while just because there's been so much more I've wanted to write! Also, I was asked if they've added up the Azkaban vision with Sirius yet and no they haven't. Remember that was almost three years ago for them and teenagers (while not fickle) can be a bit easily distracted.

Don't let me show cruelty
Though I may make mistakes
Don't let me show ugliness
Though I know I can hate
And don't let me show evil
Though it might be all I take
Show me love
Show me love

~Show Me Love, Hundred Waters

The next morning, Dany got up to run with Sirius as neither of them was highly concerned about Transfiguration and the exam didn't start until two hours after classes usually started anyways.

"Feeling good about Transfiguration?" Sirius asked as they stopped on the cliff side they always stopped at.

"Yeah, I think so. Obviously you have nothing to worry about, but I'm feeling relatively confident." Dany said, still breathing heavily. Sirius looked over at her and she was surprised to see his eyes stop at her chest. She was in a compression bra and he never gave her body a second look when they were running. "What?"

"Do you know what I've never done, but have always wanted to?" Sirius asked. Dany shook her head, looking at him curiously. "Shag outside." She laughed.

"What? Right now?" She asked and he nodded. "Are you joking? We're going to be late for exams."

"No we won't. It's not even six and they don't start until ten." He said and came over to where she was standing, kissing her gently. "Come on, Dan. You know you want to." She had to admit that the whole sweaty boyfriend thing was pretty hot and the entire situation was tempting. "Get in touch with nature and all that."

"If I find grass inside me when I shower, I'm going to kill you." She said and he grinned. "And make it quick. If I wanted a nice slow shag, I'd ask for one."

"Do you want me to fuck you, beautiful?" He murmured into her neck.

"If that's what you think fits the mood of sex outside while dripping sweat."

"Mm, I really think it does. I really think that fucking like animals sounds good. And appropriate." Sirius reached down and pulled Dany's spandex shorts and panties down to her ankles and brushed a finger against her. "Feels like you like the idea of that too, huh?" She nodded a little as he turned her around and pushed her down onto her hands and knees. She barely had time to arch her back before he started screwing her into the ground.

It was a very new feeling, not being treated gently during sex. Sirius usually touched her gently and said nice things to her while they were shagging, but this was just as welcome as being told she was loved. He was gripping her hips so tightly that there would be bruises tomorrow and Dany was pretty sure she was making noises that she'd never made before in her life.

The main lesson was that shagging outdoors should become a regular thing.

"Hey. How was your run?" Marlene asked when Dany walked back into her room. She felt the blood pool in her cheeks.

"Oh, it was fine. Relaxing." She said. "I'm going to go shower, yeah?" Dany said before her friend could figure out that she and her boyfriend had just been shagging like bunnies on castle grounds.

"Morning, love." Dany said as Sirius sat next to her and kissed her quickly.

"Morning. Pass the pumpkin juice, won't you?" He asked. She handed it to him and went back to breakfast.

"Hey, Dan." James said.

"Yeah?"

"We were wondering if you could tell us how Sirius hurt his knees." James grinned. Dany raised an eyebrow.

"What happened to your knees?" She asked Sirius. He pointed down to his knees, which had a few deep indents on them; Dany knew what had happened immediately. He had apparently been kneeling on pebbles or something while they had been shagging and they had left marks.

"He said it happened on your run." Remus said. Dany shrugged.

"Don't know. Maybe he sat weird when we stopped to take a break." She fibbed, although that wasn't actually a lie. "Pass the butter, Lils." She said, changing the line of conversation quickly.

"Coming outside?" Sirius asked Dany as they left their Defense written OWL.

"Yeah, I'll be out in a bit. I need to return a book to the library. Pince has been after me for weeks to get it back to her before the year ends. I'll meet you all out there." She said and he nodded, kissing her goodbye before following his mates outside. Dany uneventfully dropped her book off and started to make her way towards the grounds. She walked outside, saw the group of people, and knew what was happening. Sirius and James were tormenting Snape—not like Dany had a real issue with it, but Lily was about to come storming over in 3…2…"PUT HIM DOWN!" Now. Dany made eye contact with Sirius and mouthed 'put him down' at him and nodded towards Lily. He dropped Snape, breaking the spell, probably realizing that he was going to lose body parts if he didn't.

Then it happened.

"…Go out with me, Evans."

James had been doing so well. He had been so good for the last year, but he had just ruined it. Dany groaned and left to go get Marlene and Alice to defuse this.

When she came back with reinforcements, she heard it. Mudblood. People gasped, James went to hex Snape, but Remus pulled his hand down. Dany vaguely heard him say, "I think you're going to have to take a number". That was really the last thing Dany heard before she was trying to physically claw Severus Snape's eyes out of his head. Sirius picked her up and pulled her off him as she continued to try and hit him in every place she could reach.

"Enough, Dany. Lily needs you, love." He murmured in her ear as she tried to wiggle free from his grasp. She stopped struggling and saw Lily walking away quickly. Then she saw Snape, where she had attempted to murder him. His nose was broken in the very least and her nails had cut open one of his cheeks. Sirius hadn't let her get very far with her murder. Dany nodded a little and Sirius slowly let go of her. "Go talk to her, yeah? We'll deal with him." She nodded again, but something stopped her from running after Lily.

"What has happened?!" McGonagall. "Who did this to this boy?" She demanded, practically fuming.

"Professor, it was—" Dany started to say.

"It was me." James and Sirius said at the same time. "Both of us, really." They said simultaneously. Sirius gave Dany a small nudge towards the castle. She nodded and ran off in search of her friend.

"Lily! Lils!" She shouted and Lily stopped at the end of the corridor. She—unsurprisingly—was crying. "Oh, Lily." She sighed and wrapped her arms around the redhead. "I'm sorry." She whispered and Lily hugged her back before crying into her shoulder.

"I thought he was my friend." She sniffled and Dany stroked her hair gently.

"I know you did, sweetie. I think—a long time ago—that he was, but he's changed and you know it. That's not your friend out there; he's gone." Dany said gently, trying to ease some of her pain. "I don't know where he went, but that's not him." Lily nodded a little.

"You tried to kill him."

"Actually, I only tried to claw his eyes out—it's a fine distinction that's lost on many." Dany said and Lily tried not to smile. "You would have done the same for me." She added much softer and wiped a couple tears off her friend's face.

"I know. We're so overdramatic." She said with a watery smile. "I can't believe Sirius of all people stopped someone from beating Snape up." Dany smiled.

"How the tables have turned, right?" Lily nodded. "You don't need him, Lils—and you certainly don't need to be caught up in all of his Dark Arts and Death Eater shit." Dany said and Lily nodded again. "Come on, why don't we get you set up in the room and I'll run down to the kitchens and get you some ice cream?"

"Rocky Road?" She sniffed.

"Is there any other kind?" Dany asked, keeping an arm around her best friend as they headed towards their room.

Lily fell asleep with her face practically in the ice cream and Dany left Alice and Marlene with instructions to take good care of her in Dany's absence. As Lily was her best friend, this emotional crisis fell to Dany to handle 24/7 (that included the long talks and holding her when she cried at 2 in the morning), but she had something to set straight.

"Professor McGonagall?" She asked quietly, looking inside the professor's open office door.

"Masters. What can I do for you?" She asked briskly.

"It's about today, actually. With Severus Snape." She said.

"I'm aware of what happened and rest assured that we won't be seeing that kind of violence again." She said.

"What did James and Sirius tell you about what happened?" She asked quietly, closing the door behind her.

"Those two enjoy jokes too much and sometimes they take them too far and that's all you need to know about that."

"They didn't do it, ma'am." She said. "I did." McGonagall actually was shocked into momentary silence. Dany took this time to explain herself. "Well, at first they were teasing him, but it was nothing serious and Lily told them to stop. She is a Prefect, after all. That's when he called her…a mudblood." McGonagall raised an eyebrow but otherwise wasn't showing signs of life.

Dany kept going before her professor regained memory of how to speak and expelled her on the spot.

"Sirius pulled me off him and told me to go find Lily because she had run off in tears." Dany said. "I wanted to come down and set things straight, but she really needed me so I waited until she fell asleep with her face in a half-gallon of Rocky Road ice cream—which is where she is right now. The point is that it wasn't them. They took the fall for me when they shouldn't have and I'm taking responsibility for what I did. James and Sirius shouldn't be punished for something they didn't do."

"Take a seat." Dany sat. "He called Miss Evans a mudblood."

"Yes, ma'am."

"So you attempted to kill him."

"I was actually just planning on clawing his eyes out with my nails, but that was the general gist." She said, not really going for any more excuses.

"Have a biscuit, Masters." Dany felt her mouth drop open.

"I—what?" She said and McGonagall gestured towards biscuits on her desk.

"Go on." She said and Dany took one. "It would have been easier to let them take the blame for you, but you didn't. That—in a way—epitomizes our house." Dany wasn't feeling particularly representative of Gryffindor at the moment.

"Am I being expelled?" She asked and she shook her head.

"No, you're not being expelled. However, you cannot go unpunished for this—violence within Hogwarts will not be tolerated."

"I expected as much when I came down to speak with you."

"As there is such little time left in the year, I cannot give you extensive detention as I normally would. Instead, you will serve two nights of detention with me after your OWLs and you will write a letter home to your parents explaining what exactly happened. I want a reply from both of them acknowledging that they received it." Dany winced. That wasn't going to be pretty. McGonagall knew that her father would let this slide, so she was requiring her mother to be involved.

"You're sure you can't just give me detention for next year?" She asked and McGonagall almost smiled.

"I'm sure, Masters. Thank you for speaking to me and being honest. See me after your last OWL for more about your detention and I want that letter written within the week." She said and Dany nodded.

"Yes, ma'am. May I go?" She asked and McGonagall nodded.

"Let Black and Potter know that they no longer will be facing disciplinary action from the Board of Governors, won't you?" Dany nodded and stood up to leave. "Masters. Ten points to Gryffindor for integrity and honor." She said with a small smile and Dany nodded before leaving and heading for the common room. When she walked in, she headed for the boys' room. She walked in without knocking and Sirius and James looked up and grinned.

"Ah, I've wanted to hit Snape like that for years. Honestly, Dan—you're my new hero." James said. Sirius got up and kissed his girlfriend.

"How's Lily?"

"Sleeping with her face in a tub of ice cream under Marlene and Alice's watchful eyes." She said. "I just came from McGonagall's office." She added and everyone looked up.

"You what?" James asked as if he was quite certain that he had heard wrong.

"You're no longer facing disciplinary action from the Board of Governors, so don't write home about it." She said and they both looked at her like she was mental.

"What did you do, Dan?" Sirius asked, deadly serious.

"I told her that it was me that did the number on Snape and that you two shouldn't be taking the fall for something you didn't do." She said.

"Why the hell would you do that?" James asked.

"Because it was the right thing to do. Besides, I don't have a track record like you two. You two were facing expulsion, but I got off with two detentions and a letter home. She also gave me a biscuit, but that's beside the point."

"She gave you a biscuit?" James asked skeptically.

"Yeah, but the point is you're not being expelled or suspended. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go write my parents explaining that I tried to kill another student." She added, leaving, not in the mood for James' self-sacrificing attitude or for Sirius trying to snog her into agreeing that she shouldn't have told McGonagall.

She peeked into her own dorm and saw that Lily was still sleeping. Dany quickly explained what had happened to Marlene and Alice and they both smiled and told her it was the right thing to do. She grabbed some parchment and went down into the common room to write her letter.

Sirius waited a few hours before trying to find Dany. He really needed to talk to her—not to mention he was a bit wary of the repercussions of publically beating the shit out of a Slytherin—even an unpopular one. He found her in the common room, practically passed out with her head resting on the table she was sitting at. He slowly walked down and realized that she had fallen asleep writing to her parents. Unable to help himself, he read the letter. Actually, there were two of them. The first was in a beautiful calligraphy. Pretty. Formal. Distant.

Mom and Dad,

I wish I was writing to you about something cheerier, but Professor McGonagall told me I had to write to you as part of the punishment for hitting another student.

Unfortunately, you read that correctly. We had all just finished one of our OWLs and everyone was outside and I heard Snape call Lily a you-know-what and I hit him. I really shouldn't have done it, but I did.

Professor McGonagall wants a response sent to her signed by both of you before the school year ends so she knows I actually wrote you. Maybe put it on some fancy parchment or something so she knows I'm not faking.

Dany

Sirius put it down gently next to her head and picked up the other one. He realized that he shouldn't be reading this one, as the writing more of the scrawl that Dany passed notes in than it was the calligraphy of the other letter. It looked much less formal. Warmer. He read it anyways, like the idiot he was.

Daddy,

So you probably just read my letter to you and Mom and yeah, I know it's less than impressive. I didn't want to tell Mom because she'd probably be worried, but when I hit Snape, I didn't just hit him once. Sirius had to pull me off of him because I was trying to claw his eyes out of his head. I don't even know what happened—I just snapped. Honestly, I'm kind of scared of myself because I wanted him to suffer for what he said and I don't think that's normal at all.

I think I got off so lightly because Sirius and James tried to take the blame for me so I could go after Lily and calm her down, but I went back to her office once Lily was asleep to tell her the truth. I have two detentions after OWLs are over on Friday and other than the letter, that's it. Also, did you know that she keeps biscuits in her office? She offered me one and then gave me ten points for 'integrity and honesty' so I think she was just punishing me more out of obligation than anything else.

Anyways, I hope you're staying safe and I can't wait to come home and see you because I love the castle and everyone in it, but I miss you so much when I'm here.

All my love, Dany

"Sirius Black, you nosy man." A voice whispered from where he was reading. He jumped and realized that it was Dany, who appeared to be waking up.

"Shit, I'm sorry, love—I didn't—"

"It's fine. Just remind me to send them tomorrow. What time is it?"

"About eleven." She nodded, blearily propping her head up with a hand.

"M'kay…can I stay with you tonight? I haven't been sleeping very well and maybe a change in scenery will help." She mumbled, obviously growing tired again.

"Of course you can. Why don't you Floo those letters to your parents and then I'll take you upstairs?" He said gently and she nodded, but didn't move. "Do you want me to send them?" She nodded.

"Please. Send them both to my dad. He'll be in his office at work still." She said and Sirius took them from her, folded them and placed both in the fireplace.

"Minister of Magic's office." He murmured and they vanished in green flames.

"Thanks." She said with a tired smile.

"Come on, Dan. You look exhausted." He said and she easily hopped up on his back so he was giving her a piggyback ride.

"So exhausted." She agreed, resting her chin on his shoulder. He pushed their door open and James was just getting into bed.

"No shagging, please." He said before getting into bed and turning his light off. Sirius put Dany down in his bed and realized that she was still in her school uniform. She pulled her tie off and kicked her shoes off down next to his trunk and let her hair down.

"Dan, do you want something to sleep in? I can't imagine a skirt being super comfortable." He said and she looked down at her clothes and shrugged.

"If you can get up the girls' stairs, be my guest to get me something. If not, this is fine." She said, unrolling the sleeves of her shirt.

"Do you want something of mine?" She paused and looked up from her shirtsleeves. He hadn't ever offered her clothing before. Hell, he hadn't offered anyone clothing before. And she knew it.

"I—I'll take anything you give me." She said, rubbing her eyes. He dug through his trunk and found a loved and faded Rolling Stones t-shirt and handed it to her. She smiled and took it. "Thanks." She said, pulling her shirt and skirt off before shoving it on and somehow pulling her bra off through one of the armholes. Sirius stripped down to his boxers and crawled into bed, pulling her under the covers with him. She turned on her side and he got the point that she wanted to be spooned. Because that was one of two ways she liked to sleep. The other involved her lying on his chest.

"We're skipping running tomorrow." He muttered and she hummed in agreement, wiggling around so she was pressed up against him as much as possible.

Sirius had to admit that he liked having her here, curled up next to him where he could hold her. When they were like this, he noticed how small she was, her head resting under his chin. Her height was balanced out by her personality when she was awake and he couldn't care less about height during sex, but like this, she seemed every bit 5 foot 2—which was tiny compared to 6 foot 4. He wrapped an arm around her waist and heard her sigh contentedly before falling asleep.

"Padfoot." Someone whispered. "Padfoot. Sirius." Sirius opened his eyes to see that it was still dark out. He felt Dany's body pressed up against him, moving slowly with her deep breathing under his arm. She was sleeping. It hadn't been her saying his name. Sirius looked up and saw it was James.

"James? What the fuck are you doing up?" He hissed, trying to keep his voice down for the girl sleeping in his arms.

"I had to piss, but then I saw this on my way back from the toilet and couldn't resist." He grinned. Sirius moved the hand he had on Dany's waist to flip him off, but once James started snickering, Dany stirred slightly. She took the hand that was flipping James off and intertwined her fingers with his before pulling it back down to her waist, making a little noise in her sleep, still holding his hand, and snuggling closer to him, if that was possible. "How sweet." James whispered.

"Shut up. Things with Lily just backtracked about three years today." James scowled. "Go back to bed, Prongs. And close the curtains."

Sirius woke up to his alarm going off at five—he had forgotten to change it to account for the fact that he wasn't going running—and promptly turned it off. Dany started to stir at the noise and soon looked back at him, propping herself up on an elbow to do so.

"Morning." She said groggily and Sirius decided that her voice when she'd just woken up was the cutest thing he'd ever heard.

…And now he was turning into a teenage girl on the inside.

"Morning, beautiful." He said and kissed her gently.

"Potions today." She said and he nodded.

"I know. We're almost done though. Only three left after today." Sirius said and she nodded.

"Care of Magical Creatures, Astronomy, and History of Magic." She said and Sirius nodded, running a hand through her hair.

"Mhm. We're almost there, love." He said and she smiled a little.

"I couldn't have done exams without you, honestly. I would've lost my mind sometime last week." She said and Sirius smiled at her a little.

"Glad I can help." He said and she kissed him.

"Do you think we have time for an early morning shag? For good luck." She whispered and he grinned, fumbling for his wand, casting silencing charms.

"I reckon so. We should probably be quiet though—just in case the silencing charms aren't perfect." He said and she nodded, lying back in her original position so he was still spooning her. He felt her reach down and pull her panties off and he reached down and tugged his boxers down as well before slipping his hand up the front of the shirt she was in. He felt her grab his hand and move it so it was between her legs. Well, at least she knew what she wanted.

He carefully pushed into her, making her breathe shakily and deeply—obviously trying to keep it quiet. She moved his hand back to her chest, silently telling him what she wanted from him. He kissed her neck and started to slowly move in and out of her, the only sounds really being their heavy breathing and occasionally a whisper of nothing in particular into Dany's ear. Dany climaxed just before Sirius, who came happily, deep inside of his girlfriend.

Dany turned her head and smiled at him, kissing him slowly—lovingly even—as he felt her inner muscles flutter around him.

"I love you so much." She murmured, tracing his jawline. "I don't know how I went so long without you."

"You've had me for a really long time, Dan—you just didn't know it for a while." He whispered back. She smiled a little, kissing him again.

"Yeah, but I don't know how I went so long without this—without having to worry about being platonic all the time." She whispered, obviously searching his face for something.

"I wasn't platonic all the time—lucky for me, you were just really oblivious." He whispered back and she smiled, laughing a little. "So, so oblivious. Everyone knew but you." He whispered and she kissed him again, twisting her back to do so. Suddenly, someone pulled the curtains open. It was Remus.

"Wake up, lovebirds. Don't make me pull those covers off you." He said.

"You don't want to do that Moony." Sirius said and he raised an eyebrow. "We just finished shagging and we're both naked from the waist down." He added and Remus shut the curtains so quickly it was comical. Dany's face flushed bright red and Sirius started laughing at the sudden outburst of "they're what?!" from James. Sirius reluctantly pulled out of her and they both reached down to pull their underwear on. Dany peeked her head out of the curtains.

"Hi, James." Sirius heard her say sheepishly. Sirius opened the curtains all the way and James looked mortified. "We're both dressed now, if that makes it better." She added and James shook his head.

"No, that does not 'make it better'! Jesus, Danilynn put some real clothes on." James said and Dany got out of bed and started looking for her clothes. She found her uniform and looked around for somewhere to change. "Bathroom's over there." Dany vanished quickly and James glared at Sirius. "You're joking, right?"

"Okay, she asked to stay here because she's been having trouble sleeping and it just kind of…turned into sex this morning." Sirius said and James made a face. "Stop sending Remus in unannounced if you don't want to have this problem." He added as Dany walked out of the bathroom. Everyone in the room busied themselves with something else as she tried to straighten out her hair.

"At least my walk of shame is short." She joked to Sirius as she put her shoes on. "Thanks for the bed. And the shirt." She said as she located her tie. "And the shag." She added loudly glancing over at James, who gagged. Sirius laughed.

"No problem on all accounts and you can keep it if you want it. I never wear it anymore." She smiled briefly and kissed his cheek before heading for the door.

"Bye, James. I'll be sure to shower before breakfast." She sang at him before leaving. Remus, James, and Frank all looked over at him.

"Did you just give her—?" James trailed off.

"Shut up. Only Quidditch shirts count." He said, heading for the shower.

Sirius noticed that when they all walked to breakfast, James couldn't quite meet Dany's eye and Sirius had to suppress a smile at that. For his part, he sat down next to his girlfriend, kissed her good morning and started in on his porridge as everyone talked about the upcoming written exam in only a few hours. Suddenly, the mail arrived. Sort of. Almost no one was getting mail these days because of OWLs and other exams, but Sirius watched an owl land in front of McGonagall—he recognized Dany's family owl—and another in front of Dany. The one in front of her was a Ministry owl. She nervously untied the letter before it flew off. She read the front of the envelope and Sirius recognized Daniel's handwriting. At least it wasn't a Howler or a notice that one of her parents was dead or something. Dany read with a terrorized look on her face. She silently handed it to Sirius.

Dany,

First of all, look completely petrified with fear the entire time you read this. You're good at acting—you'll do fine. Now, your mother and I talked about what happened and decided that although we don't condone violence whatsoever, we understand your anger and you won't be punished at home for it—despite not agreeing with its…shall we call it manifestation? Now, if Professor McGonagall asks, your mother and I are deeply horrified by this completely out-of-character outburst and you're going to be punished accordingly over summer (that's why you're supposed to look terrified).

I can't wait to see you, sweetheart and don't forget to kick ass on your OWLs!

All my love, Dad

PS—Sirius, I know you're reading this, so you better be treating my baby right

Sirius tried to look mortified too, but he didn't think he was doing nearly as good of a job as Dany had. He was having a hard time getting over the fact her dad signed letters the same way she did to him: all my love. It was pretty damn cute.

"I love your dad so much sometimes." Sirius sighed and handed it back to her. "Between this and the time he wrote to tell McGonagall that it's perfectly normal for you to be 'going through a sexual awakening', he's becoming my personal hero."

"Hey, get your own hero. He's mine." Dany said, stowing the letter in her bag. Sirius glanced over at McGonagall, who looked satisfied with the letter she was reading—he suspected that Rhea and Daniel had both written the letter and had sent the family owl as further proof that it was indeed from them.

"I'm just saying though: you have a kick ass personal hero." He commented and she smiled a little. She obviously knew just how kick ass her father was and was proud as hell of him.

"We're done!" Dany laughed, practically launching into his arms at the end of the History of Magic exam. "We're actually done." She said, kissing him. "We fucking did it." She said, much quieter.

"We did it. Now all we can do is wait, huh?" She nodded.

"Yeah. Or I could go serve detention with McGonagall tonight." She sighed. "I'm going to head to her office now and see what she has planned. Probably lines. 'I won't beat the shit out of people who deserve it'." Sirius kissed her nose.

"Sounds fun. How about when you finish detention, we have a nice night in and do nothing?" He asked and she nodded, grinning.

"That sounds fantastic. I'll just go to your room when I'm done?" She asked and he nodded.

"Obviously."

"I'll see you there." She said and walked off towards McGonagall's office.

Dany apparently was just sent straight into detention because Sirius didn't see her again for the next few hours.

"Hey, Frank?" Sirius asked. They were the only ones in the room. Sirius had checked for this conversation. Frank looked up.

"What? What's going on?" He asked.

"You're dating Alice."

"It would seem that way. Why?" He asked warily.

"Do you think you're going to marry her?" Frank choked.

"Are you going to try and marry Dany?" He sputtered.

"Holy shit, no. I'm not getting married at sixteen, thanks." He said and Frank relaxed. "I mean can you see yourself having a future with her?" He slowly nodded.

"Yeah, I reckon so. I'd like to have one with her—I've thought about it before. You're starting to think about it too, huh?" He asked, smiling a little.

"Mhm. I didn't think about it until this morning—"

"Please don't tell me what you think about when you shag."

"After the History of Magic exam, you twit." Frank nodded knowingly.

"I thought about it for the first time during Herbology, if that makes you feel better. All of a sudden I had this crazy mental image of her in a wedding dress." Frank said and Sirius nodded. "It's normal, mate—it's called love and commitment." Just as he said this, Dany walked in. "Hey, Dan. Would you happen to have the time?"

"It's about seven, I think." She said and he nodded.

"I'm supposed to meet Alice soon. Have a good night, you two." He said and smiled at Dany on his way out.

"Bye, Frank." She called out the door before closing it behind her.

"How was detention?" Sirius asked and she shrugged.

"Dirty. She had me repot plants for Professor Sprout for almost five hours. Do you know how heavy potted fanged geraniums are?" She groaned, stretching her back. "Besides, I don't exactly weightlift on a regular basis." She added, flopping down onto his bed.

"Did you shower?" He asked, noticing that her hair smelled oddly good for having just come from five hours in the greenhouse.

"Mhm. I had potting soil and fertilizer all over me. Besides, I thought the hot water might help my poor muscles. It didn't." She said, closing her eyes. "How you deal with Quidditch all the time is beyond me." Sirius actually had to agree with her on that one.

"Have you eaten?" She shook her head.

"Can't say I have. You?"

"Nope. I can go down to the Kitchens if you don't want to move." He offered. She smiled gratefully.

"I love you so much." She said. "I'm just going to close my eyes for a minute. Wake me up for food." He nodded and kissed her quickly before leaving.

Weirdly, he found Severus Snape outside the portrait hole.

"Snape. Not that I really care about you, but why are you standing outside of my common room?" He asked pointedly.

"I need to talk to Lily, Black." He said and Sirius shrugged.

"So you can degrade and insult her? Sure, let me go get her, you twat." Sirius snapped, not in the mood. He had a tired and hungry girlfriend in his bed that he wanted to get back to.

"I'll sleep out here if I have to." He said desperately and while Sirius did actually feel a bit bad for him—he knew what it was like to be solidly friend zoned by the girl you loved—he wasn't going to go get Lily just so Snape could upset her.

"Go ahead. I care much more about Lily than I do about what the floors do to your back." He said with a shrug. Sirius walked off, leaving a shocked Slytherin in his wake—as he probably didn't know that Lily and Sirius had that strange relationship between platonic friends that resembled having the sibling you never wanted.

When Sirius came back with food from the house elves, Snape was still there.

"Threaten me all you want, but I'm not leaving." He said and Sirius shrugged.

"Yet again, I don't care what you do as long as it doesn't impact the people I care about. Now, if you'll excuse me." He added and the Fat Lady looked over at Snape disapprovingly. "Want to just let me in so I don't have to say the password in front of him?" He asked her and she nodded—to his surprise—letting Sirius in and quickly closing behind him. He walked upstairs and saw that Dany was sleeping exactly where Sirius had left her. He gently shook her awake. "Dany, love. Come on, I have food." He tempted and her eyes fluttered open.

"Did you bring cake?" She asked with a small smile. He laughed.

"No, but I brought ice cream." He said. "And the house elves send their love and actual food." She sat up as he handed her the roast beef sandwich the elves had given him for her.

"Thanks." She yawned, sitting up and leaning against his pillows.

"Snape's outside the common room." He said and she raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah?"

"Mhm. He wanted me to go get Lily—or to let him into the common room. I told him to piss off and he threatened to sleep out there." He said and she nodded.

"And?"

"And I told him I care more about Lily than his back and he was more than welcome to a nice patch of stone floor." He said.

"Good. Lily doesn't need to be bothered with a twat like him. She's just now starting to feel better about that entire situation." Dany said, leaning on his shoulder as they both ate. "He's lucky I don't walk out there and give him a black eye to match that broken nose and claw marks." She muttered.

"That's probably not the best idea. You got off light because you're usually pretty good, but twice in a week? Forget it." He said. "As much as beating him up sounds like fun, let's not." She nodded.

"I know—besides, if I tried to walk that far, my muscles would probably all lock up and send me down the stairs on my ass." She said.

"It's really that bad?"

"She's going to have to give me lines tomorrow because I'm going to injure myself if I have to do that again." She said before munching on her sandwich.

"Where's sore?"

"My back and arms mainly, but my hamstrings will probably be feeling it tomorrow." She said, rolling her neck a bit.

"You know, I have this girlfriend—" She raised an eyebrow, "—that does this wonderful thing for me after Quidditch practice—" She knew what he was talking about and put her food down to sit between his legs, eagerly asking for a backrub.

"Shirt on or shirt off?" She asked. He usually took his shirt off, but that wasn't such a big deal for James to walk in on.

"Whichever you want. If you want your shirt off though, we should probably close the curtains a bit." He said and she nodded, pulling her shirt over her head, leaving her creamy back exposed, along with her purple bra—before she closed the curtains and flicked her wand to fill the little room that the curtains created with light—that blissfully wouldn't cast shadows outside the curtains. She settled back down between his legs and moved her hair to the side before pulling off her bra and tossing it to the foot of the bed.

Sirius discovered very quickly that Dany's back was actually a highly erogenous area as she was making sounds that had more to do with sex than relaxation, although she told him to be quiet and keep doing whatever it was he was doing when he asked if it was helping.

Sirius didn't really care about the no talking request as he was actually quite enjoying looking at her back, looking for the little details he'd never noticed before, like how she actually had wisps of hair that grew at the very bottom of her hairline and how dimples appeared on her lower back when she pressed into his hands and how her shoulder blades shifted under her skin as he touched her. Not long after he noticed the wisps of hair, he realized that she was relying on his hands to hold her up because she was making absolutely no effort to prevent her from falling backwards. It was like a sexed-up version of a trust exercise.

"You okay, Dan?"

"Mhm. I'm wonderful." She murmured. "I feel so much better." She sighed as Sirius carefully removed his hands from her, letting her adjust to holding herself up. She reached forwards and grabbed her bra and shirt before turning around to face him. "Thank you." He kissed her and opened the curtains as she killed the little ball of light.

"No problem. I owe you quite a few of those." He said and she laughed as she scooted back and leaned against his chest, still between his legs, arms resting on his bent knees. "Ice cream?"

"Ice cream." She agreed, taking the spoon he offered her along with the ice cream itself, figuring that he'd end up eating over her shoulder anyways. "Cookie dough. Ah, you know me so well." She laughed before popping the lid off and helping herself. "Try not to get any in my hair, if you don't mind."

"I'll do my best." Sirius chuckled. Halfway through the ice cream, James walked in and wrinkled his nose.

"You two make me nauseous sometimes—have I ever told you?" He said and Dany shrugged.

"I don't really care. I have ice cream and a cute boyfriend. I'm happy and there's nothing you can do about it, James." She said and James rolled his eyes.

"What about you, Padfoot?"

"I don't really care either. Besides, would you rather see this or have to listen to both of us whine about each other like we did for years?" He asked and James looked sickened by the mention of that time in his life.

"I take it back. Enjoy your ice cream. I just came in for the cloak." He said and vanished out the door with his invisibility cloak.

"Do you have the Map?" Dany asked.

"Mhm."

"Do you want to watch where they're going?"

"Obviously." He said and handed it to her, opening it first, as she didn't have a free hand to do it herself. The spent the next few hours watching Remus and James float about the castle under the cloak and making theories about what they were doing. They were either just exploring the castle or setting up an elaborate prank.

Probably a prank, but that didn't stop Dany from hypothesizing that they were actually lovers and from Sirius suggesting that they had gotten quite lost on their way to a meeting with the occult.