Words cannot describe the level of sorrow I feel it necessary to impart to you all, but I shall try; I'M REALLY REALLY SORRY.

Really, I am. I'm so sorry. I just crumbled under the pressure of GCSE's and then A-level coursework and now AS exams... arghh. But the plot bunnies attacked, and I now have another story (DM/GW, BZ/LL) which is shaping up strangely, and also several more story-ish things resting in my computer, waiting to be unleashed. But then I found the beginning of this chapter and thought 'I really need to update', and so here we are. I have taken a slight detour, there will be another chapter (perhaps two! Ooooh) of them in their seventh year. That's all, really, apart from review answers (I know, I know, it's been like a year, some of you may be gone now, some of you may be dead - but I still feel bad.)

Just realised some of you might actually be dead. If you are, oh Christ, I'm really sorry. Not that you're reading this. But still sorry. That was such a horrible joke.

Er, review time?

Holly's Bella: Thank you! I'd love to write a sequel! I just think I'd probably cry the whole time. I hope I have the courage to kill them off. It's terrifying :(

vamp-girl095: He's a complete idiot, sometimes. I'm glad he finally pulled himself together!

Calamity and Chaos: No problem, that's really flattering :) Thanks! It's really strange, I do that with other people's stories. It's bizarre thinking someone likes my story that much, so thank you for that.

Queen of Egypt180: Yes, I think I'll probably have to. I'll try not to cry too much.

HBIC Never Again: I want to. I really do. Don't know how to do it well, though :(

I still love you,

TheGreenEyedIdiot xx

Dear Alex,

How are you?

Having a bloomin' wonderful half term, sweetheart, thanks for asking, Cornwall is especially riveting in the middle of October.

When are you and your beautiful legs coming to see us, then? I'm extremely excited to see your annual and inevitable tan which you somehow gain in Surrey in the autumn.

Reply immediately. There are absolutely no excuses not to.

Love love love,

Your betrothed. xxxxxxxxxx

(Not really, it's only Alice. You are a silly sausage)

P.S. I'VE CUT EVEN MORE OF MY HAIR OFF! Dear papa says I look like a boy, so I think, on balance, it was a good move.

Alice,

You're always ravishing, it's a biological fact.

Oh, do fuck off the tan.

I love you, my sweet!

Alex xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Four days into half term, and Alexa Burke had sent and received a grand total of two letters.

Two.

Two bloody letters.

Two!

Remus was excused – it had been a full moon two days ago, and he was still recuperating, Potter never sent anyone but Lily and Black letters, so she wasn't particularly bothered by that either. Lily, she knew, was on holiday somewhere and her father had put his foot down after Lily tried to pack her wand, seventeen textbooks, and a large owl cage into the family car. Nibbles the nervous tawny was ostracised. That only left Peter – who hadn't spoken to her in about two months, Maggie – who wasn't exactly on great terms with her at the moment, and Black.

Mmm.

Yes. Black.

But why would he bother? Just because he happened to be her boyfriend. Of roughly four months. Who she hadn't even slept with yet. A fact that she was getting increasingly twitchy about. Because, well, he was Sirius Black! She couldn't understand why the designated lothario of Hogwarts wouldn't want to shag her, he'd alluded to it often enough, through a series of innuedos of varying seriousness (Siriusness! Shh, don't go mad.) and once, a mime. Which lasted for several minutes.

Tosser.

She picked up her quill, twirled it once, and put it back down.

She picked it up again and opened a bottle of ink, then put her quill down again.

Why should she have to make the first move? For merlin's sake, hadn't she done enough already? Or perhaps leaping at him like a horny gazelle hadn't been sufficiently obvious for his crude male sensibilities.

What was she saying? Of course it was! Sirius Black had a bigger ego than anyone in the world. Possibly put together. He had probably assumed that she was in love with him even when she absolutely was not.

Pompous, arrogant, lazy, noisy, using… prat! He was a bloody prat!

She blinked.

She blinked again.

Was her ceiling… shining?

It was then that she realised, no, her ceiling was not shining, she was crying. But since she was horizontal on her bed gravity was having a very hard time taking effect and the tears weren't going anywhere.

She sat up, wondering vaguely if you could drown your own eyes, and rubbed away the newly freed tears. There were considerably more of them than expected.

Stupid bugger.

You're telling me. His face needs to be punched. Immediately.

What's he playing at, not contacting me? We've only been together four months and two of those were holiday and now... this!

Let us look at this in the most positive way I can think of: At least you didn't shag him.

...

Well you didn't, did you? I'm just saying that that's probably a good thing, because now you know you're not just a conquest - unless he bored of you without even shagging you, which is, frankly, impossible.

...

Although, some would probably say that not shagging Sirius Black is possibly the most idiotic sex-related mistake that you could ever make. But that's for you to decide, really.

…

Actually, think about it; Alexa Burke and Sirius Black. Arguably two of the the best-looking people in Hogwarts- screw that, in England. Ever. Both considerably experienced at banging people, together, at last!

I'm feeling a bit strange, if I have a heart attack do try and help, won't you?

The kids would be stunning, although the poor things would be hounded by their teenage friends who would always be begging to come round and see – depending on sexual preference – you - the original yummy mummy - or Sirius, who is, let's face it; an absolute God.

Good Merlin.

Abso-bloody-lutely.

Alice, dear,

I am in a state of complete shock. I think I've just had a mental breakdown. I'm coming to bloody Cornwall, my legs will be there shortly, closely followed by the rest of me.

There better be ice cream, is all I'm saying,

Love and snacks,

Ally xxxxxxxx

"Well. Essentially, mate, he's an idiot, isn't he?"

Alice was lying on her bed on her side, looking sympathetically down at the back of Alex's head. The blonde's face was planted into her thick black carpet, left hand curled protectively around a tub of ice cream, right hand around a massive spoon. The haircut suited Alice, Alex thought. She now looked like a particularly good-looking elf.

"Whabt'm I gobna boo?" Alex cried, which, despite being a lovely string of syllables, didn't actually have a direct meaning in any language, as far as Alice knew, and regretfully told her friend so.

Alex rolled over and sighed.

"I'm buggered, really, aren't I?"

"Indeed."

"Damn. Will I ever achieve my dream?"

"The one about defeating a piranha or the one about finding true love?"

"The one about becoming the original yummy mummy."

"Oh."

The next day Lily joined them, and the day after that Maggie turned up.

"Right kiddies, we is going to the beach," Alice announced on the last day of the holidays, "pack your bikinis and your thermals; Cornwall is weird."

It was the first day in a while that Alex felt less of a moony prat, and more like herself again.

The four of them were walking along the beach in their bikinis simply to see how many people checked them out, Maggie in navy blue, Lily in emerald green, Alice in bright red, and Alex in black and white pinstripes. Lily refused to walk next to Alice because they 'looked like Christmas.' Alex had found an empty silver bin bag and was using it as a cape. Alice refused to stand next to her because 'it had never and would never be her desire to become a carer for the mentally impaired' so, after eleven complicated minutes, Maggie had to go between Lily and Alice, and Alex went next to Lily.

Alex was unreasonably cheerful when they returned, and agreed that the only way to make Sirius be a good boyfriend was to force him - possibly, but not necessarily, involving some kind of water torture.

Possibly.

Sirius leant back into his bed. Tomorrow they'd be going back to Hogwarts. Tomorrow he'd see Alex again.

Sirius felt maginally guilty that he wasn't looking forward to seeing any of the others, but then he decided he couldn't be bothered. Alex was the one he'd missed, which he thought was rather romantic. The fact that he lived with James probably had something to with the whole 'not missing anyone else' scenario, but he dutifully ignored it.

What bothered him was the lack of contact between them. They hadn't exchanged letters all week, and while a week isn't a long time, it was still a significant portion of their still-new relationship. He hadn't seen her much at all, really. The few weeks before the summer holidays last year, and about a month an a half before the half-term break, which wouldn't have even existed if parents weren't worried about seeing their children more often, what with the whole 'Voldemort' situation.

Sirius cursed silently as a loud bang emanated from the general window region, and he crept over, wand in hand. When he saw what it was he almost giggled.

But didn't, obviously.

Men don't giggle.

It was Nibbles, Lily's Tawny owl. The thing had an unusually nervous disposition for an owl and apparently colliding headfirst into a window hadn't helped in that area. Nibbles was rattling slightly and blinking rather fast.

Sirius let the owl in, and gave it a compassionate pat on the head.

"Worse things happen at sea, mate." He said consolingly, but this, if anything, seemed to agitate the owl more. It started hooting in an alarmed way. Sirius wondered if the owl had had to cross the sea to get here and concluded that yes, it probably had.

"Er. I mean, worse things happen at... the bakery. Yes. At the bakery." He nodded in what he hoped was a knowledgable way. The owl looked suspicious, but edged away, before simply dropping out of the window. It regained use of it's wings mid-fall, and soared nervously away. Sirius shook his head. He hadn't bothered to check the envelope, assuming it was for James, but on closer inspection realised that it was addressed to him – and decidedly not in Lily's tidy script.

Sirius felt his stomach swoop, and then scolded it for behaving so inappropriately. They didn't know for sure, after all, who the letter was from.

He opened it quickly, and checked the handwriting.

Alex?

Good evening, stupid head,

Yep, definitely Alex. Sirius smiled.

I'm afraid that this is not a purely social letter, it concerns something very serious, Sirius. Very serious indeed. Sirius snickered against his will, Sirius, serious...

It seems that you have FORGOTTEN THAT I AM YOUR GIRLFRIEND. This is a very unfortunate circumstance, Black, and one that I am unaccustomed to. I am afraid that I shall have to jog your memory along tomorrow at the train station as to the whereabouts of our relationship, but until then; I love you, you enormous idiot, and remember; there's nothing scarier in life than a raging McGonagall with a teapot on her head.

Picture it.

Later, my love,

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (many snogs)

Sirius read the letter twice, and then a third time for good measure. She- she said she loved him! Of course she'd said it many times when they were friends but this was different in that they were in a position where it was usual for people to fall in love!

They were so normal! It was bloody fantastic.

Bloody... bloody wonderful.

Andand she had called herself his girlfriend! Sirius leaped up and down, pirouetting silently over to James' bed where he blew kisses at the letter before actually kissing his best friend.

"Jim-jams, up! You'll never guess what's just happened!"

"The room's caved in. The world has ended. Hogwarts just exploded. You're in love. Any of those? A combination, perhaps?"

"The latter, dearest Jamie! The latter!"

"You're in love?"

"Yes!"

"What else is new? Next time this happens there better be a good excuse."

Sirius watched, dismayed, as his best friend rolled over back to sleep.

"What else is new?" He repeated, quietly.