I found this the other day in a pile of Stuff I was looking through, and thought I'd tag it onto the end of my story in case anyone was interested. It's not that great, but sort of ties up loose ends and introducing possible new ideas, and could also be considered shamelessly slushy! Try saying that five times quicker... I hope it's interesting to read, and thank you if you do read it.

Epilogue.

Sirius knocked on the Potters' door and waited, his bag dangling from one hand. He thought of last summer when he's arrived here, and had to force back the embarrassment of how he he'd acted around Adriana. Well, she'd turned out to be insane, anyway…

The door opened. "Padfoot!" James greeted him warmly as he pulled Sirius inside. "Nice of you to show up. Hey guys – Sirius is here!"

They went into the kitchen and Sirius saw Remus, Lily and Sarah for the first time in a month. No Bethan, though, he noticed immediately.

"Hello stranger," Lily said, smiling. "What happened? We thought you'd forgotten about us."

"Never!" Sirius replied. "I literally haven't had a chance to write or anything. I left home, and moved to the Leaky Cauldron."

While James and the girls digested this surprising information, Remus looked dismayed. "Sirius, you live in a pub?" he asked, his eyes wide. "God, I'm surprised you've lasted this long."

"No, I've got a job there," Sirius explained. "Tom gave me a job. Don't worry, I'm coping surprisingly well in an alcohol-fuelled environment. Actually, it's surprisingly dull, and there's hardly a chance to play tricks on anyone!"

"Well I'm disappointed," James said. "A Marauder can always find the opportunity to prank someone!" he put an arm round his best friend and steered him into a chair. "When we get back to Hogwarts we'll get back into the routine," he assured him.

The three boys began excitedly planning adventures for the next school year. As it was their seventh, and final year at Hogwarts, they knew they would have to out-do themselves and come up with ideas no one had even dreamed of before.

After a couple of minutes, though, Sirius could bear it no longer, and, trying to sound as though it had just occurred to him, asked the burning question: "Hey – where's Bethan?"

"She's upstairs," Sarah told him, turning from her conversation with Lily about how slow boys seemed to be at maturing. "But she's not very… happy with you at the moment," she added carefully.

Sirius was aghast. "Why?"

"Well you haven't contacted her at all since school finished," Sarah bristled with anger for her friend. "She's been upset, Sirius."

"I didn't mean to upset her!" Sirius said, glaring at the table. "I haven't contacted you guys, either, it's not like I singled her out! God, girls can be so..." But he knew it was useless to continue that thought. "I never want to upset her, I lo-" He looked up quickly, checking himself just in time. "I like her very much," he muttered instead.

Remus raised a light brown eyebrow. "Right… Well, you should go talk to her." The others nodded, and Sirius got up to go upstairs.

"Oh – Sirius!" Lily called suddenly. He turned. "I just wanted to tell you my news – although you won't like it."

Sirius frowned. "What's that?" he asked.

Lily blushed slightly and said, "I've been made Head Girl!"

"Oh god!" Sirius looked and sounded disgusted. "Lily, why did you have to tell me that now?" He looked utterly dejected. "I s'pose you'll be trying even harder to make James a good boy."

"Well, actually, he might be a different kind of Boy…" Sarah broke the silence. Sirius looked from her to James through narrowed eyes, suspecting trouble.

James cleared his throat. "Er, Padfoot mate – there's something I need to tell you, too…"

"What?" Sirius asked slowly, his expression turning to alarm as he dreaded hearing the answer he was now afraid of. He looked around at the others. "What is it?"

"I'll tell him, shall I?" Remus sighed as he saw James chicken out. "Sirius, you'll like this even less… James has been made Head Boy."

The cuckoo clock out in the hall filled the following silence by cuckooing six times. Sirius blinked, then snapped, "What the fuck?"

"Sirius, can't you refrain from swearing for at least five minutes after your arrival?" Lily couldn't help asking.

He looked at his watch and snarled, "I've been here eight minutes. It was necessary under the circumstances."

"I know, it's weird, huh?" James grinned sheepishly. "I wasn't expecting it either."

"And it gets worse," Sirius muttered. "I'm going to talk to Bethan, and when I come back down, you'd better not be Head Boy."

He left the room, and they heard his footsteps on the stairs. James looked fearfully at Remus, who, along with Sarah, looked suspiciously like he was trying not to laugh.

Upstairs Sirius checked each of the three bedrooms, but Bethan wasn't in any of them. Closing the door of the third, he eyed the shut bathroom, and walked slowly up to it.

He knocked softly. "Bethan?"

"I'm in the bath," she answered. Then, after a moment: "Sirius?"

"Yeah, it's me," he said, leaning his head on the wooden door. "You're in the bath? Are you naked?" He immediately regretted asking this.

"No, I kept my clothes on because I thought they might need a wash," came the dry reply.

Sirius cursed his idiocy before saying, "Sorry, that was stupid. Look, I'm sorry I haven't written or anything. It's not 'cause I didn't want to, 'cause I did. I've missed you so –"

"Sirius," she interrupted.

"Yeah," he immediately answered.

"I'm in the bath, I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," Sirius whispered. No other answer came, possibly because she hadn't heard him, and he sank down to sit against the cold wall. He rested his forehead on his palms, thinking that he'd blown it already, before it had even began.

Nearly an hour later saw him in a similar mood downstairs in the Potters' front room. James and Lily were in the kitchen getting dinner ready (which would have been a source of great amusement for Sirius in normal circumstances), while Remus and Sarah sat whiling the time away. They had decided to opt for not asking whether they could help with dinner; that way they wouldn't have to. Sirius had come down to join them once he had pulled himself together after the brief and painful conversation with Bethan, but he wasn't offering much more than that in way of his usual chat.

He sat in the single armchair, slouched down with his arms hanging over the sides and his legs stretched out on the table in front of him, listening to Remus and Sarah's banter but not caring to add to it.

"I'm telling you, it must be some kind of joke of Dumbledore's," Remus was saying. "It's the kind of thing he would do – and what other reason is there for James being Head Boy?"

"Sounds like someone's jealous," Sarah laughed. "You're just bitter, because you've been a good boy all these years, and the reward is someone else – your best friend – becomes Head Boy, while you remain a measly prefect."

"Ha! I scoff at you lame attempt to understand me," Remus replied. "Are you unaware that I am a Marauder, and therefore not a 'good boy'? Sirius, tell her, tell this asinine being here, that I'm an integral part of the group."

"That's right, my wolverine friend, you certainly are," Sirius said listlessly.

Sarah laughed again and smoothed her short blonde hair. "Okay, fine, change of subject: what's the betting that during the course of our next year, Professor Harlem and Madame Pomfrey will get it on?" she grinned at the shock on Remus' face.

"Um… next to nothing?" he suggested. "It's a higher betting that you will be outed as a hopeless, matchmaking romantic."

Sarah punched him on the arm and gave a derisive snort. "And you're trying to say that you're not a hopeless romantic?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

"Shh, don't show me up in front of Padfoot." Remus put a finger to her lips, looking worried. "But may I point out," he added in his normal tone, "that that snorting laugh you so often employ – very attractive." His laughter quickly ceased when he saw her murderous expression.

"What's that about Harlem and Madame Pomfrey? I was thinking they'd make a cute couple, too." The arrival of Bethan rescued Remus just in time from Sarah.

Sirius whipped round at the sound of her voice, straitening up in the armchair and crossing his legs beneath him. He stared; she stood at the doorway, her slightly damp red hair falling onto her shoulders. He wanted to say something, but she did first.

"Sirius, you want to have that talk now?" she asked, appearing not to notice his slack-jawed expression, and Remus and Sarah looking from one to the other.

"Yeah, yeah – if you want to," Sirius replied.

"I've got nothing better to do," Bethan smiled.

"Oh for god's sake, just get out of here," Sarah told them impatiently, making Remus laugh. She glared at him, not having forgiven him yet for the snorting laugh comment.

Sirius and Bethan went upstairs to one of the bedrooms, he dreading what she would say; she hadn't seemed very bothered with him earlier.

"So, er, what exactly did you want to talk about?" he asked.

"You were the one who interrupted my bath," she reminded him, smiling again. "What did you want to say?"

"Oh, right." What did he want to say? "Well, I started to say, how I've missed you, and I wanted to get in touch – but then you stopped me, and I didn't think you wanted much to hear."

Bethan frowned. "The reason I stopped you was because we were on opposite sides of a wooden door and I couldn't see you. I wanted to be able to see your face when we had this conversation."

"Really?" he asked, surprised. "This face?" She nodded, removing his anxieties. Sirius sighed and smiled in relief. "Thank god, 'cause I thought you hated me. I thought I'd blown it already and you'd put me in the same boat as Marley Branson."

She frowned again, and shook her head. "You're in a different boat from Marley," she told him. "He's in a little rowing boat that goes round in circles with only one oar, and you're the captain of a big ship."

He grinned and took her hands. "I've always wanted to be a pirate." She pulled him closer to him, relishing the smell and feel of him before they kissed. Her hands went into his soft hair, while his travelled down her back. She could feel him smiling as he kissed her. They parted, and now she could see his smile as they stared at each other.

"I have nothing to offer you," he said suddenly, even tough he couldn't help smiling; in fact he was laughing. "I'm broke, and I have no house or family that I want to call my own."

She put her hands up to his face, stopping the words. "Sirius, we're seventeen," she laughed. "I don't expect you to provide for me. You shouldn't be so old-fashioned, anyway."

"I can't help it," he said apologetically. "I love you so much, I want to protect you like I should have protected you from Marley."

"Don't ruin the moment with his name," she said softly, tracing his lips with her finger. He closed his eyes and kissed her fingertip gently.

"There's just one condition," he said, opening his eyes again to reveal smiling brown. "Let's not be another James and Lily. I don't want to be official potato-peeler in this relationship."

She laughed and nodded. "No, I agree, we'll be a Sirius and Bethan – or a Bethan and Sirius, if you will." He grinned and kissed her again.

"Now we just have to get Remus and Sarah together," Bethan told him, her hands resting on his chest.

"I really don't think they need any help with that," Sirius replied. "You should have seen them earlier – serious flirting going on."

"Let's go watch them now, it'll be fun," she suggested, going towards the door.

Sirius resisted and pulled her back towards him. She came back readily, and he ran a hand down the side of her face. "I'd rather stay here," he said, his eyes searching her face.

"Me too," she agreed, sitting on the bed. He sat on the floor and lay his head on her thigh, closing his eyes. Slightly surprised, Bethan played with his hair, twisting it in her fingers and making it stand on end. "Should I be nervous about dating such an infamous cad?" she asked him.

"No," he replied. "If anything, I should be more nervous… Unlike you, I've never been in love before."

"Oh good," Bethan said casually, even a she felt something like a balloon swelling up in her chest. "That makes me feel a lot better about everything."