The Christmas Ball: A Marauders Story

Midnight

Each of the songs that were played became faster and faster, getting less and less organized. Eventually we came to the songs that didn't need partners and Remus and Peter joined us on the floor. We were having so much fun, I almost forgot to watch the time. A song very reminiscent of one we had listened to while getting dressed had just finished up when the six of us traipsed off the dance floor. My hair looked a little less perfect then when the night had started but I didn't care. It was ten minutes until midnight when I announced I should be leaving.

"Alright then, let's go," James said. This made me smile, he had always been willing to give up almost anything to see me happier.

"No, James. You stay here, you have to impress Lily remember?" I reminded him.

"Oh, that's right, I have to convince her to come with me next year, I almost forgot! I'll go do that right now then!" he said smiling. He gave me another quick hug and ran off in Lily's direction.

I was preparing to go by myself when Sirius caught me by the arm, "You shouldn't go alone though," he told me. While this might have been what I wanted, I still didn't know exactly how I felt about it.

Libra could sense my hesitation and said, "Don't worry about James, we'll make sure he doesn't get upset."

"He'll be so caught up in Evans, I doubt he'll even notice that Sirius is gone for at least twenty minutes," Moony joked.

I smiled a thank you to both of them and took Sirius' proffered arm again as we walked out of the hall, trying to draw the least amount of attention as possible. As we walked out, I looked back in the direction that James had run off to, and to my surprise, he was looking at Sirius and I walking out of the Hall together, and he was smiling. It was his smile that he always made when Sirius reminded him of a brother, and I knew he would not be happy that I was seeing this as something else. He winked at me as he turned back to trying to impress Lily.

When Sirius and I had gotten a few hallways away from the Great Hall, he asked me if I thought we would have time to make it to the Common Room, or if I thought that I needed to go somewhere else. There was only two minutes before the first chime would go off on my clock, three before I needed to be out of sight.

"I don't think we'll be able to make it, but all of the rest of the school went home for the holidays so a secret corridor should work fine," I told him.

We made our way along the hall until we came to one hidden behind a tapestry of three trolls. The first chime went off.

"I'm not really nervous so this won't take very long," I said. "If you could wait out here and make sure no one comes in?"

"Of course!" he said.

He took out his wand and held it menacingly above his head, making me laugh. I went behind the tapestry and up a few of the stairs before I sat down on the steps as the second chime went off.

The transformation really wasn't that bad tonight, and it was barely over a minute when I emerged and tapped Sirius on the shoulder.

"All done?" he asked.

"Yup!" I replied. "You can go back to the ball now, I probably shouldn't, considering my hair." I pointed to the disheveled mess that was on top of my head, no longer nice and contained as it had been at the start of the evening.

"No, I'll walk you to the common room," he explained. "I am pretty sure James would kill me if I let you walk around at this time of night by yourself."

"Probably true," I laughed.

We turned to go back up the hidden staircase, the fastest way to Gryffindor common room. This was also one of the longest staircases in the whole school. We started walking in silence.

"You are going to have to tell me if you guys get Mulciber into that punch bowl," I said, trying to start up a conversation.

"Yeah, I'll make sure to do that." Sirius' reply was dry and boring, he was not helping with the conversation.

We were almost halfway up the staircase now.

"Hey, Sirius," I turned to him, and we both suddenly stopped. "Thanks for inviting me tonight, it was really nice of you. I had lots of fun."

"Good," he said, something was off in his tone of voice.

I turned to continue up the stairs as I said, "I know it can be a bummer to have to take your little sister to fun parties, but..."

"I don't think of you as my little sister anymore," he interrupted. I turned back around a little too quickly.

"Oh?" I asked him.

"No, I don't," he smirked, he had seen how quickly I had turned around.

I suddenly noticed that he was closer to me now.

"Then what do you think of me as," I asked, genuinely curious. "James' little sister? Libra's best friend?"

This time, I actually saw him take a small step closer.

"Nope, wrong again Potter," he had used my last name, hardly anyone ever did that.

"Well, what do you see me as then?" I pressed.

I was backing slowly away from him as he took another, then another slow step forward. I was against the wall now, there was nowhere for me to go.

"I don't quite know," he said. I looked up into his face, that beautiful face that I had been in love with since my first year. He was very close now and he was staring at me as if he had never seen me before, "I love you, Honoria Potter."

That had not been what I was expecting, I looked into his eyes, those beautiful dark brown eyes as I tried to figure out what I should say in return. Then I realized, I already knew.

"I love you too, Sirius Black."

There was a brief moment where all we were doing was looking at each other, and I noticed that his hand had come up and was sitting right below my ear. I couldn't believe what was happening. I was suddenly aware of how loudly I was breathing and how noisy my heartbeat was. As Sirius tipped my face to one side and slowly pulled me closer, it was better than a movie. No awkward moments, and the faint music still coming from the Great Hall. Then, our lips touched and nothing in the world seemed to matter anymore. His hands had somehow made it to my waist, mine were in his long black hair. He tasted like chocolate sweets. After a long moment, we broke apart.

"Don't tell James," we both said in unison.