Black Blood

Disclaimer: Regretfully, I do not own Sirius Black or any of the other characters found in the Harry Potter Septology. However, if anyone would like to donate funds so that I can become richer than J.K Rowling and buy them from her, I promise I will bring Sirius Black back from the dead and do anything else you say. Please send your gold to Ian McDiarmid's front lawn, where I am currently begging him to take me as his new apprentice and teach me how to bring someone back from the dead. (Ian McDiarmid plays the Emperor in Star Wars, if you happened to not know that.)

A/N: First things first- I missed you all so much! I'm hoping you won't absolutely hate this, which is the fear that has been keeping me from uploading it. This is the sequel to Padfoot Prohibited: A list of things Sirius L. Black is no longer allowed to do or say at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It occurs roughly two years after the first one ended. If you would like to read Padfoot Prohibited (a.k.a. PP), it has fourteen chapters and, I'm pleased to say, has gotten very good reviews. However, PP is strictly a humor fic, and while this is a continuance of that fanfic, it will most likely contain more romance than humor. So those of you who are expecting another PP, I'm just warning you here and now that it may not be quite what you were hoping for. But do give it a shot and let me know what you think in a review. Thanks so much. Enjoy.

Luv, Liveley

Chapter 1 – Reacquainted

He stood in the shadows, watching and waiting. Three cloaked figures were moving slowly up the walk. Letting his hood fall, the tallest one threw his head back and laughed at something the shortest had just said. He had long, blonde hair that had been swept back into a tidy ponytail. Sirius could vaguely recall Lucius Malfoy. He was in his seventh year when Sirius started at Hogwarts, and although he was now also married to his cousin, Narcissa, Sirius knew him by reputation only. The two with Malfoy, Sirius didn't know or couldn't really remember. What it came down to was that all three of them were known Death Eaters, except that the Ministry didn't have the evidence to prove it yet. Sirius shifted even farther into the darkness when Lucius suddenly whipped around at the sound of a squirrel scurrying up a tree trunk nearby.

Sirius smirked and muttered to himself, "Twitchy little Death Eater, aren't you, Malfoy?"

Not wanting to screw up his first real assignment for the Order, Sirius kept a silent but watchful eye on the men before him, ready to alert the next person down the walk when they finally moved on and ready to alert the rest of the Order if they took action. It was then, while keeping a close watch on them and their surroundings for more Death Eaters, that Sirius noticed the girl. Long, black hair flowing behind her, this girl was apparently not watching where she was going. Even if she was a Muggle and didn't know what Death Eaters were, the three men didn't exactly look friendly. She continued to walk toward them, and so just as she was passing Sirius's hiding spot, he darted out for a split second and grabbed for her. Pulling her backwards with one strong arm around her waist, he covered her mouth with his other hand, willing her not to scream.

Sirius held the girl against him and whispered urgently into her ear. "Don't scream. I'm not going to hurt you, okay?" Not daring to take his hand away from her mouth just yet, as she was struggling desperately to be free of him, he continued, gently, "Listen to me. Those men out there under the trees are very dangerous. I need you to stay hidden here with me until they've moved on. Do you understand me?"

The girl suddenly abandoned the arm that was restricting her waist, and with all ten digits, dug her nails into the hand that was over her lips, wrenching it away.

The voice that spoke ever so softly was dripping with hostility. "Get your hands off me, Black, or I'll let the Death Eaters have you."

With one quick motion, Sirius spun the girl around to face him, but kept a firm hold on her. "Who are you? How do you know my name?"

"Let me go," she demanded, glaring up at him.

In the darkness that surrounded them, Sirius couldn't properly see her face. He suddenly wished he'd taken a closer look before he pulled her into the shadows. "Tell me who you are."

"Not until you let go of me."

Sirius had nothing to bargain with. He let the arm that held her close to him drop to his side. "How do you know me?"

"I went to Hogwarts," the girl responded, taking more than a few steps back from him once she was free of him.

"What's your name?" he asked, impatiently.

He could see the outline of her mouth form a smirk. "Guess." She was enjoying being able to play with him.

"Did we date or something?" Sirius had sure dated his share of girls throughout his seven years at school.

The girl let out a short, hushed laugh. "Not if I could help it."

"Gryffindor?"

"Yes."

Sirius was truly perplexed. He should know someone from his own house. If only he could see her face! "Were you in my year?"

"No. I just graduated a few weeks ago. I was in my fifth year when you were in your last, in case you can't do the math," she answered, sarcastically.

"All right, you obviously hate my guts…"

"And for good reason. I should have pulled that pink tutu up to your neck and choked you with it." Miraculously enough, the girl managed to keep her voice down despite the acidity to her voice.

Sirius let out a sharp sigh of revelation and shook his head, staring at her outline. "Miss me, Ashe?"

"Hardly."

Sirius gave another sigh. "Wow…Raven Ashe. Never thought I'd lay eyes on you again."

"That is obvious," said Raven.

Sirius grimaced. "You're going to give me a hard time, aren't you?"

She shrugged. "You gave me one."

"Two years ago! I'm surprised you even remember, Ashe. You enjoyed every second of it, didn't you?"

Raven rose her voice. "No."

"Fine, go ahead and deny it," he sighed. She was no easier to argue with now than she was two years previous. "What are you doing wandering around here alone and at night anyway?"

"That's not your concern."

He rolled his eyes. "Well, did you even see the Death Eaters?"

"Of course I saw them. They won't bother me. I'm not Muggle-born."

"Yes they will. Just for being here and seeing them together," argued Sirius.

"I can take care of myself," she defended.

"Against three Death Eaters?"

"What are you doing here then, Black?" she shot back.

"I'm supposed to be watching them, looking for any new faces. There's a leak in the—" he stopped short. He didn't think it was wise to talk about the Order of the Phoenix in front of a non-member.

"The Order?" she finished for him.

"How did you know about—"

"It's not important," she interrupted. "But I must say, Black, you've done a fine job of keeping tabs on them by coming out of nowhere and scaring the bloody hell out of me."

"I was trying to protect you!" shouted Sirius. A sarcastic snort from Raven interrupted his thoughts of how ungrateful she was.

"Good job," she said scathingly as she made her way back up from the shadows where the moonlight illuminated her face.

Sirius followed her. "Ashe, wait. We need to stay out of sight."

She turned back around to face him. "From whom?"

Sirius quickly moved past her, into the open. They were gone. "Shit! Come on." After turning back to grab onto her hand, he pulled her along the walk, keeping to the shadows, until he saw them again further up the walk and moving more swiftly.

"Can you please try and keep your hands off me?" Raven was again trying to pry herself away from him.

Sirius smirked and held her hand, fingers laced together with his, bent behind her back. "Don't get excited."

"Oh would you get over yourself, please? You couldn't possibly excite me if you tried."

"You should know better than to challenge me by now, Ashe. That's what made me chase after you in the first place."

Raven rolled her eyes. "You were always wanting things you couldn't have."

He finally let go of her hand only to put a finger to her lips. "Shh."

He pulled a small mirror out of a back pocket in his robes and said "Remus" into it. Remus's dimly lit, but amiable face appeared suddenly in the mirror.

Sirius spoke to him in hushed tones. "Heading your way just now, Moony."

"Gotcha, Padfoot," Remus replied with a wink.

"Remus?" questioned Raven. Curiously, she tilted the mirror so she could see his face and smiled down at him.

"Raven? What on earth are you doing with Sir—Oh, blast!" His voice became a low whisper, "You could have told me they were that close, Padfoot. I have to go; they're coming." His face faded away suddenly and Sirius tucked the mirror back into his robes.

Raven looked to Sirius with concern. "He'll be okay, won't he?"

Sirius's mouth formed a smirk once again. "You know Moony."

She smiled at Sirius for the first time. "Yeah, I know 'Moony' as you call him."

"We can go now," said Sirius as he now ushered her out into the open.

"Go where?" asked Raven.

"Well, I don't know. Wherever you were going before I grabbed you."

"My best friend, Jordan's house." Raven pointed into the distance where a long row of houses stood side to side.

"Ever hear of Apparating?" asked Sirius.

"Yes, but I'm not that lazy. I live just there." She pointed in the opposite direction.

"Does Remus know that?"

"Yes. I ran into him a few weeks ago on his watch. He told me to look out for you," she smirked.

"What?" Sirius let out a frustrated sigh. "Well, what's the big, damned deal? He did the same thing two years ago when I asked him who you were. I didn't think I was such a bad guy. Can't we be friends?"

"Just friends?" Raven asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Sirius shrugged. "Possibly."

"Have you ever been 'just friends' with a girl?"

"Sure." Raven's other eyebrow arched, so Sirius continued insistently, "When I was at school, it was different, okay? I'll give you that. I realize was an arrogant jerk I was most of the time. I can't believe most of the stuff I did now." He ran a hang through his black locks.

Raven let out a sharp laugh. "Me neither."

Sirius's gray eyes met her blue. "If I hurt you," he suddenly looked rather ashamed of himself, "I'm sorry. It's not what I wanted. That's just the way I operated back then, I guess."

Raven shook her head. "It was a long time ago. Don't worry about it."

Sirius nodded. "Friends then?"

Raven rose an eyebrow and surveyed him skeptically.

"Come on, Ashe. Can you possibly hate me so much you refuse to give me another chance?"

Raven smiled again at him. "You're a pretty hard person to truly hate, Black. I'll admit that."

Sirius chuckled. "Tell that to my parents."

Raven furrowed her brows as the two of them walked along. "Your parents really hate you? I thought you just always said that to get girls to feel sorry for you or something. How can they hate you?"

"Simple, really." Sirius waved a hand in front of him as though he didn't care in the least as he launched into an explanation. "There are lots of reasons to choose from: I don't buy into their pureblood superiority bullshit; I'm not a Death Eater like my brother; my best friends are Muggle-borns and Muggle lovers; or possibly because my Uncle Alphard died and left every cent to me since they hated him, too."

"I figured Regulus would be a Death Eater," said Raven quietly. He had been in her year. "He and Bellatrix."

Sirius nodded and then remembered something. "I seem to recall the slightest bit of enmity between you and Bella in our schooldays."

"The slightest bit?" asked Raven. "We hated each other, yes."

"Why?" Sirius questioned. "Other than the fact that she exists, I mean."

"Well, why not? I mean, she was Slytherin, I was Gryffindor, you know? We were like exact opposites. I guess it started when people would mistake me for her in the hallways. She got sick of it one day, came to tell me off, and wound up making an arse of herself instead."

"How?" asked Sirius with growing interest. He loved seeing his least favorite cousin, Bella, humiliated.

Raven tried not to smirk. "Er…well, I sort of turned her hair green and spouted something like, 'There you go, Slytherin, now people definitely won't confuse you with me again'."

Sirius howled with laugher. "Merlin, I would give up my uncle's entire fortune in Gringott's to have been able to see that!"

Raven laughed along with him as she slowed her pace. They had come to the long row of houses where Jordan lived.

"This it?" asked Sirius.

"Mmhmm."

Sirius nodded, not taking his eyes off her. "So…can we be friends or not?"

Raven sighed. "Promise you'll never do it again?"

At first, Sirius was going to ask her what she meant. Then he realized there was only one thing he'd done to her that she'd still have her knickers in a twist about.

"Promise I'll never kiss you again?" Sirius shook his head adamantly. "I'm not going to do that," he smirked, "I might possibly want to kiss you sometime in the future."

Raven blushed slightly. "But you're supposed to ask a girls' permission first. Didn't you know that?"

Sirius narrowed his eyes on her.

"Oh, I see, " Raven nodded, "Sirius Black doesn't have to ask permission because every girl in the whole bloody universe wants to snog him, right?"

He grimaced. "I probably would have sounded exactly like that two years ago, yes. But no, I just think asking first would ruin the moment a little bit, don't you?"

"Well, you don't have to come right out and ask verbally. You can tell by the way she looks at you, or even by body language." Raven smirked, "And chances are if she's glaring daggers at you and refusing, yet again, to go out with you, it usually indicates that she's not exactly ready for you to stick your tongue down her throat."

Sirius gave her a sexy smile. "Oh come on, Ashe. Tell me anyone's even come close to kissing you like that since then and I'll get right down on my knees and beg your forgiveness."

"I—That's not the point! And it's none of your business either," answered Raven, defensively. "The fact of the matter is that even though a girl might want you to kiss her at first, if you just grab her and go for it without anything leading up to it, she's going to know you only want one thing, and knowing that sort of devalues the entire kiss in the first place, don't you think?"

"Do you ever stop moving those lips?" he asked, grinning down at her.

She gave him a shrug. "When I'm asleep."

"I see."

The door to the house they were standing just in front of opened suddenly. A girl with long brown hair and friendly face stood staring at them, looking very puzzled.

"Sirius Black?" She turned to Raven. "Is he stalking you again?"

Raven giggled. "I don't think so, Jordi."

"Well, am I supposed to sic Chopper on him or what?" asked Jordan, smirking at Sirius.

"Chopper?" he asked, uneasily.

"Her Dachshund," explained Raven.

"Oh…those are little, right?" Sirius prompted.

"Yeah, but he's a killer," said Jordan. "We trained him to sic certain parts of the human body."

"Like…what?" Sirius was almost afraid to ask.

"Like things that you have and we don't," Raven teased him, biting at her bottom lip and smirking.

"I'm outta here," Sirius said, taking a few hurried steps back from the door.

Raven and Jordan giggled. "Just kidding, Black."

"Yeah, he only sics Slytherins," added Jordan.

"I'm not taking any chances; I have centuries upon centuries of Slytherin blood running through my veins," he said. "So, Ashe, I'll see you around, okay?"

"You will?" Raven asked.

"Yeah, I have duty all week, same spot. So maybe we can catch up with Remus afterwards?"

Raven looked to Jordan, who answered, "We'll be there," with a grin.

Raven laughed and leaned into Sirius, dropping her voice to a whisper, a whisper loud enough that Jordan could hear. "Jords has a little crush on your best friend."

Sirius smirked and turned to Jordan. "Hey, you fix me up with yours, I'll fix you up with mine."

Jordan nodded excitedly, which earned her a light jab in the ribs from Raven.

"Black…" warned Raven.

"Only joking, Ashe." He winked at Jordan before retreating slowly down the street.

A/N: Well, so goes the first chapter. I'm liking it so far…I just don't know where I'm going from here. What did you think? Any suggestions? Review and let me know. You can also instant message or email me. EvrChanginAnthem is my AOL screen name and email. I luv chatting with HP fans, so feel free to IM/email anytime. Don't expect regular updates on this. It's just not possible with my life the way it is right now. I need the degree to get the job; I need the money to get the degree; I need the job to get the money… It's a vicious cycle. Please try and be patient. Thanks.

Luv, Liveley.