AN: Sorry for the wait! I've been messing around with this chapter trying to get it to where I want it. It's not my best, but I hope you enjoy it! I'll try to update sooner next time!

The first half of the year flew by, and soon everyone was buzzing about who was going to the Yule Ball with who. Maisie hadn't expected anyone to ask her–despite the claims in the Prophet about Neville planning a grand proposal–and just planned on going to have fun with friends.

One day in the common room, Ryan approached her, looking nervous.

"Hi", he said.

"Hey", Maisie smiled at him. "What's up?"

"I wanted to ask you something", Ryan said. He took a deep breath. "Would you...want to go to the Ball with me?"

Maisie's smile grew. "Yeah. Yeah, that would be fun."

"Awesome! I'll meet you outside the Great Hall."

"Sounds good."

Ryan walked away, silently rejoicing, while Maisie's smile fell a bit. Everyone who was going to the Yule Ball was going to stay at the castle for Christmas, but Maisie had been looking forward to going home. It would be her first holiday with Sirius.

She wrote a quick letter to him, conveniently leaving out the fact that she had a date, and asked if it was alright. The next day, he wrote back.

We can work something out to get you home afterwards. Don't worry about me, I'll be alright.

Maisie smiled to herself. Everything would work out perfectly. Ginny wrote home and asked her mother to send one of her dresses so Maisie could borrow it.

The night of the Ball, she tried it on and it fit perfectly. It was a black, knee-length dress with cutoff sleeves. She loved it.

However, her hair was not cooperating. She did everything she could before asking Lavender to help her. The other girl agreed and pulled her hair into two long braids.

"Thanks, Lav!"

"No problem. You better get going, your date is waiting."

Maisie rolled her eyes and went down to the common room. She looked around for Hermione, but didn't see her. Ginny was talking to a few of her friends and saw her.

"That dress looks great on you!"

"Thanks! Thanks for letting me borrow it."

"No problem. Who are you looking for?"

"Hermione", Maisie replied. "Have you seen her? She wasn't in our dorm, either."

"No, I haven't", Ginny said. "She didn't seem that excited about tonight. Maybe she's in the library?"

"Maybe. I have to go, I'll see you down there!"

Maisie hurried out of the common room and then down to the Great Hall. She saw Ryan standing at the bottom of the stairs, talking to a few girls from Beauxbatons. He was wearing a black suit, his blonde hair swept back. Maisie felt butterflies in her stomach when he looked up at her and smiled.

Relax, don't make this weird.

She walked down the stairs and over to him.

"Hey", he said, still smiling. "You look great."

"Thanks, so do you."

The two Beauxbatons girls gave Maisie polite smiles before saying something in French to Ryan and walking away.

"We better go in", he told her. "I think the champions are lining up." He took her hand and they walked into the Great Hall together. Maisie tried to keep herself calm at the sudden contact. Okay, so maybe she did like him. So what?

The champions entered and performed a rehearsed dance and then everyone else joined in on the dance floor.

"Want to?", Ryan asked, nodding toward the floor.

"Oh, I don't know how to dance", Maisie told him.

"Neither do I, that's the fun part. Come on."

She let him pull her into the crowd and laughed at their poor attempts at dance moves. Time flew by and at one point she looked at the clock and saw she had twenty minutes to get to Professor McGonagall's office and floo home.

"I have to go", Maisie told Ryan over the loud music.

"I'll walk you out."

Once they were outside the doors, the two of them stood awkwardly for a moment.

"This was really fun", Maisie said.

"It was", Ryan agreed. "Maybe we should do this again sometime."

"Yeah, we should. I should go, I'll see you after break."

"See you–oh." They looked up and saw mistletoe hanging above them. After a shared awkward smile, Ryan leaned down and kissed her.

"Okay", he said when he pulled away. "See you."

"Bye." Maisie felt like she would never stop smiling as she walked to McGonagall's office. She knocked on the door and entered.

"The powder is on the fireplace, Miss Potter", McGonagall said from her desk.

"Okay. Thank you for letting me use it."

"You are welcome. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Professor."

Maisie stepped into the fireplace and threw down the powder after yelling out Sirius' address.

She appeared in the sitting room where her godfather was reading. He looked up and smiled.

"Five minutes early", he said, nodding appreciatively. "I was preparing myself to come and drag you home."

Maisie smiled and took off her shoes, sighing in relief.

"I'm assuming that smile means it was fun?"

"Yeah, it was", she replied. "It was great."

Sirius' eyebrows rose. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say someone might be in love."

"I'm not."

"No? That smile is identical to the one your father had every time he saw your mother. If that wasn't true love, I don't know what is."

Maisie just rolled her eyes–still smiling–and reached back to undo her braids. "Anyway, I had a good time."

"I'm glad. Now, you go change into your pajamas and get to sleep, or else Christmas won't come!"

"I'm not five, Sirius", she chuckled.

"Well, some of us still believe in the magic of the holidays. Go on."

Maisie went up to her room and Sirius shook his head. How in the world was he so old that his goddaughter was dating? He could have sworn that she had just turned one a few weeks ago…

He waited a few moments before following her up the stairs. He walked into her room just as she was getting into bed.

Sirius walked over and kissed her forehead. "I'll let you sleep in a bit tomorrow, alright?"

"Okay."

Sirius kissed her forehead again, then the tip of her nose. "Goodnight, I love you."

"Love you too", she said sleepily. Her eyes closed and Sirius stood there for a moment, stroking her cheek. He finally left her to sleep and went to his own room.

The next morning, he let her sleep a bit later than she usually did before waking her up by turning into Padfoot and jumping on her bed. She rolled onto her side to face him and rubbed her eyes.

"Morning", she yawned. "Can I sleep longer?"

Padfoot shook his head and poked her stomach with his nose.

Maisie giggled softly and reached out to pet him. "Is that a no?"

Another poke.

"Give me a minute."

A head shake and yet another poke.

"You're not gonna stop until I get up, are you?"

A head shake and a playful nibble on her fingers.

"Alright, alright." Maisie climbed out of bed and stretched. "There, happy?"

Padfoot jumped off the bed and turned back into his human self. Sirius walked over to her and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Merry Christmas, love."

"Merry Christmas."

"Come on, let's go see what Father Christmas brought!"

Maisie rolled her eyes as she followed him.

After breakfast, Remus came over and they all opened presents together. It was a wonderful day.

Remus went home after dinner and Maisie was curled up on the couch with Sirius, feeling extremely thankful. However, there was something on her mind that she needed to ask.

"Hey, Sirius?"

"Hm?", he asked as he rubbed her back.

"I need advice, but you have to promise me not to tease me about it."

"Me? Tease you? I should be offended, Maisie."

She glared at him and he laughed.

"Alright, fine", he conceded. "I promise. Now, what do you need?"

"So...Ryan kissed me last night."

Maisie felt Sirius stiffen a bit beside her.

"Okay", he nodded.

"I just…I've never been in a relationship before, what do we do now?"

Sirius relaxed. His mind was going to a lot of bad places. "Well, a good place to start would be to talk to him about whether or not you have a relationship. Up until now you've been pretending to just be friends, now you both know you like each other. Talk about it, and be honest with him."

Maisie nodded. "I can do that. Thanks."

"Of course." Sirius smiled mischievously. "Can I tease you now?"

"No, you promised."

"I'm comfortable breaking this promise", he said. "My little girl had her first kiss, I'm sure it was very romantic. Young love is a beautiful thing."

"Okay, that's enough."

"Merlin, am I really this old?"

She rested her head on his shoulder. "No, you're not."

"No? Then how is my goddaughter dating, and having her first kiss? Your father would have cried when you told him that, just so you know."

Maisie giggled. They sat like that for a while before Sirius had a thought. He should probably talk to her about boys, and the things they might want from her.

Merlin help me.

"I think we should have a talk about this", he said after clearing his throat.

"About what?"

"Boys. And where this relationship, or any relationship, could go."

Maisie just stared at him before her cheeks turned red. She began shaking her head vigorously. "No."

"Listen, I don't want to do it either, but you need to be prepared."

"I don't need to be prepared for anything. I'm fourteen, I'm not gonna...do anything crazy."

"I'm not worried about you, I'm worried about the teenage boys you're surrounded by."

Maisie weighed her options and realized there was no way out of this conversation. "Alright, fine. Let's get it over with."

Sirius then realized that he had no idea where to start. "Has anyone talked to you about where babies come from?"

"Yes, please can we do this faster."

"I was just wondering! That makes this the smallest bit better. Okay, the thing I really wanted to tell you is that, I know this is embarrassing, and it always will be, but you can always talk to me about anything. If you're concerned about something some guy says or does, let me know. Good?"

"Good."

"The other important thing is this: don't let anyone force you to do anything you don't want to. I don't care how many of your friends have done something, or if some guy says he'll break up with you if you won't do it. If that's a deal breaker for him, he's not worth it."

Maisie nodded, her embarrassment fading a bit. "Got it."

"Good", Sirius sighed. "Finally, I want you to know that I'll always be supportive of whatever choices you make. I might ask you to think about them a bit before you make them, but I'll support your decisions unless they are dangerous or bad for you."

Maisie gave him a mischievous smile. "So...any choice?"

"I meant specifically pertaining to these situations, but yes, that also goes for any choice you make in your life."

"Even if I decided to be a Death Eater? You'd be supportive?"

"I believe that falls into the 'dangerous or bad for you' category. For the record, you'd be locked in your room until you saw why that would be a bad idea."

"So I should go get my Dark Mark removed, then?"

Sirius lightly swatted her thigh. "That's not funny. I see you're trying to avoid this conversation, and I'm done if you don't want to talk about anything else."

"I'm good", Maisie shrugged. "That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

"Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need a drink."