You Are Cordially Invited (Sirius Black)

"What If People Saw You Come Here?"

LILY Potter felt obliged to do something. Poor Aurora wore a look of pure devastation which sent Madame Pontellier into a flurry of fuss and French. She was jabbering away to her mistress worriedly and it was clear from Aurora's tone of voice that she was probably passing it off as a headache.

"James, Sirius can't just tell her her life plans are over and get home before dinner," Lily said with concern to her husband, "he needs to meet her parents and explain it all."

"No I bastard won't!" Sirius snapped. He felt relieved that the truth was out but also- and most annoyingly to him- extremely guilty. She was sat there looking bereft and torn, and something about her vulnerability (and incredibly attractive face, of course) made him ridiculously horny. It was confusing and uncomfortable and exciting at the same time.

"At least invite her over to your flat to talk calmly," Lily retorted. Sirius paused- perhaps that wouldn't be the worst idea.

"Aurora, listen," Sirius began, and her sparkling blue eyes turned to him sadly, which once again stirred the uncomfortably exciting sensation in his body, "err... well, erm, I'm sorry about this, I don't mean to upset you."

She cast her eyes out of the enchanted window and gazed at the lush green banks, unwilling to make further eye contact lest the disdainfully handsome man before her say something more to hurt her.

"This whole thing was a surprise to me," Sirius began, "and I didn't want to lie to you and pretend everything is good. I can't give you what you want, I'm not that person, I'm an arsehole and a twat and probably the worst possible husband ever. It's not a life I want to give anyone."

James glanced at him and for the first time, between all of the laughter and crude jokes and cynicism, he realised why Sirius was such a whore: he was scared he couldn't offer anything good and happy and real, so he went the opposite way by sleeping with anyone so he didn't have to face the reality of commitment.

Aurora tore herself away from the view over the Thames. Her tears had dried and she felt more composed.

"I thank you for your candour, Mr. Black," she said stiffly and formally, "and I will take the information back to my parents who will cancel the arrangements. I daresay we need not meet again."

Her face showed no trace of emotion, save a slight smudge around her eyes from her make-up. She held her gaze resolutely and graciously bid farewell to her visitors, feeling like glass which was one press away from shattering eternally. Madame Pontellier fussed again and tried to ask her what happened but Aurora kept insisting she simply felt unwell and her visitors had to leave.

Aurora went to her room as quickly as she could and told Madame Pontellier to take the afternoon off; she just wanted to be alone to process everything. She entered her plush room and used her wand to lock it behind her. In the quiet safety of her room she immediately dumped her robes on the floor, down to her underwear, keen to feel free.

She took her pale blonde hair out of the tight, formal knot and let it fall down her back, massaging her scalp to release stress. As she opened her eyes, she screamed.

Sirius Black was sat on her couch.

*

Sirius was trying to look away whilst simultaneously explain himself; Aurora was scrabbling for her robes and shouting for him to leave and trying to reach her wand. Finally as she clothed herself and drew her wand the confused yelling and noise stopped. She was panting heavily.

"What are you doing here?" She demanded angrily. Sirius looked like a shamed puppy.

"I just wanted to talk to you without people around, truthfully," he answered, holding his hands up.

"What if people saw you come here? It is very indecent!" Aurora shot.

"Nobody saw me, I swear," he reassured, thinking in the back of his mind: THAT wasn't the indecent part!

She regarded him suspiciously but lowered her wand. Subconsciously she pulled her robes tighter and slowly sat on the chair opposite him.

"I do not know what else you could possibly say, Mr. Black, you made your position quite clear," she said curtly.

Sirius ran a hand distractedly through his hair. "I feel like I owe you more of an explanation than I've given you. There are shit loads of other factors in this."

Aurora raised her eyebrows sceptically- Sirius took this as an invitation to continue.

"My parents… they're crazy. Like, dragon dung crazy. They had the most unrealistic expectations, wanted me to be one of them, have no personality or life of my own," Sirius explained. He rubbed his face roughly as once again he had to re-open the same old wounds.

"Everyone's parents have some form of expectations, that is not particular to you," Aurora said flatly.

Sirius smiled slightly.

"No, but did your parents beat you if you answered back? Did your mother lock you in your bedroom during school holidays for hours on end to stop you spending time with friends? Were you forced to use your life to promote the so-called brilliance of your family?" He was getting visibly agitated and Aurora started to think that this wasn't just him trying to absolve his conscience.

"It got worse the older I got, they hated that I wasn't the snivelling little greaseball they wanted. It got so bad that I ran away when I was 15… ran away like a pathetic kid," Sirius ranted.

Aurora felt her anger melt away; he clearly had an unstable and unhappy home life so it was natural that he would have reservations about his own future. She herself had moments of rebellion against her family's impositions so she could see how that could develop into bitterness. She went over to the couch and carefully perched next to him. She gently patted his back.

Sirius rubbed his face again.

"Then I lived with James and his parents until I got my own place, by which time I was disinherited and disowned by my family and blackmouthed all over the country. It's only now that I feel like my life's getting sorted. And so the first I heard about, err… you," he mumbled awkwardly, "was when I got the invitation. It sort of scared the shite out of me. And it brought all of this stuff with my family back up."

He looked at her honestly and full of unbidden emotion, emotions which he tried to hold back but now were ebbing up to the surface.

"I don't want to upset you, but I can't marry you because I can't even control my own life," he whispered sadly. Aurora felt her heart soften completely and instead of bitterly hating Sirius for not wanting to marry her, she felt genuinely bizarrely attracted to him.

"I am sorry for that, Mr. Black," she said gently. "I understand why you do not want to marry me. I too would not want my life to be a miserable lie."

Sirius looked at her and smiled. "Call me Sirius. Did you know that you're beautiful?" He said gently.

"Oh… err… I…" she stammered. She hadn't expected that but it was most welcome.

"Really, you are," he said again and this time he had a different expression. He wasn't looking at her with anger or disdain or sadness- it was passion.

**