More Than A Feeling

The days of spring sped quickly by as time for N.E.W.T.S and commencement drew closer. Books had littered the tables of the Gryffindor common room and the library. Some days they headed out to the grounds to study beneath an old oak tree that stood tall under the ramparts of Hogwarts Castle.

“Lina,” Sirius said, a quill tucked between his teeth that he chewed to bits as he studied. For the first time in years, he felt a certain contentment at Hogwarts, that his life was finally on track – and he had the girl he'd wanted for years.

“I'm not telling you the answer,” Salina replied without looking up from the scroll of parchment that seemed to wind around them. She knew it bothered Sirius that she didn't want the others to know yet that there was something more than friendship between the two of them. The secretiveness of it all made it all the more exciting, and the newness of it all she wanted to hold to herself for just a bit longer.

“When?” Sirius asked, “James has figured it out, I think....” He told her with a sheepish look on his face.

“If he knew, than Lily would know,” Lina sighed, and placed the parchment on the blanket they sat on to look at him. “Remus would know,” she continued, only stopping when he placed his finger gently on her lip.

“He called me a moody puppy the other night,” Sirius moved closer to her, his face inches from hers. “I could hardly deny that.” His nose brushed back the hair that covered her neck, and he grinned when he saw her eyes close and her head tipped back.

“Bloody rotter,” she murmured her quill dropping from her hand, and the crinkles of the parchment as he maneuvered them down fully on the blanket. “Is this all you think of?” she asked him rhetorically, but settled back as his lips caressed the skin of her neck.

“Just five minutes,” Sirius said as his hands ran through her hair, his lips making their way to her lips. “You know a bit of snog before study helps my concentration....”

“Oh, Sirius,” Salina said with a laugh, and their lips connected. She loved when they kissed, for it drove away all the doubts she had. Not in him, or them, but in the world around them. Pressures from her parents continued to come about what she planned for after Hogwarts, and really she just wanted to ignore them. They were finally aligning themselves with the Blacks and Malfoys and wanted her to follow them. When, not if, they found about her affections for Sirius would have them blowing out the roof of the Wallace mansion.

Sirius' hand ran down her arm, and a laugh rumbled in his chest that she could feel against hers when she shivered from the touch. He continued to kiss her, each sigh making him go further. He gave a groan of frustration when she pulled away suddenly, her eyes looking around in the bushes near them.

“What's wrong?” he asked her, his eyes following hers but saw nothing that he could make out. “Nothing's there,” he told her.

“I heard something,” Salina muttered out, pushing him away.

“Nothing is there,” Sirius repeated, but he got up to poke around in the briar bush she still looked at. “Ouch!” He stuck a finger in his mouth after pulling quickly away from the spines that covered the bush. “If there was something there, it would have fled from these bloody prickers,” he said finally after settling back next to her.

“What if someone saw us?” Lina asked him, pulling his hand towards her to look at. A carefully casted spell closed up the small wound.

“Nothing human can get through this briar to spy on us.... and in a week everyone will know anyhow.” Sirius reminded her. “Does it matter?” His brow quirked with his question. “Ashamed to be mine?” he asked her finally, a frown covering his face.

“No, never that,” she denied, blushing slightly. “I just wanted to keep you mine silently for awhile longer. You know they're gonna tease us once they know. Like you did when Potter finally started dating Lily...”

“My friends do that? Never,” Sirius said with a laugh, forgetting about the bushes and the 'would-be intruder' that had scared Salina. “So what if they do.” He shrugged his shoulders, and wrapped an arm around her to pull her close. He grinned when her head laid upon his chest, and he rested his chin lightly on her head. “So yeah, they will – but I love you, Lina Wallace.”


The small creature scrambled through the long grass back towards Hogwarts and safety. His whiskers moved rhythmically with his nose as he squeaked out his indignation. A briar thorn still stuck in his hind leg, and with every movement he squeaked a bit more. Finally he reached the entrance, and looked around before entering.

The rat moved quickly to the wall, and into the shadows as he made his way up and through the halls and stairs to a high tower. He reached Gryffindor's portrait and waited for someone to enter.



The mood broken, Sirius sat with a book in hand and listened as Salina read; not hearing her words just the sound of her voice. His thoughts ran to reasons why she wanted to keep them in secret, and it all went back to her family. Where once both of their parents would have jumped for joy about their furthered friendship, now it wasn't the case. The look in her eyes sometimes reminded him of Narcissa's eyes when they'd all been dragged to his parents' house to watch the 'ceremony'. He could still see it all happening in slow motion, the sound of Bellatrix's laughter a backdrop to his mother's words as she held her wand towards the tapestry.

Toujours Pur was the motto of the Black family, one of the oldest families in the Wizarding Britain. They prided themselves on the purity of their blood, his blood. But really, how pure was it? Did blasting names of the tapestry, denying family because of supposed transgressions really keep it pure?

His mind remembered the whiteness of Narcissa's skin as her beloved sister Andromeda's name was blasted off the tapestry – the warning for them all what would happen if they went against the family and the old ways.

It had worked on Cissy, for the next year she had married the Pureblooded Lucius Malfoy. For him though, it had driven him into further rebellion until he left the family behind and had clung to James Potter's family.

But where did Lina fit into all of this? Her family was old also – the Wallaces from the Scottish moors. Her older brothers had been his friends until he had broke away from his own family, both of them now following a madman.

“Sirius?” Lina said, her lips pursed as she looked up from her book to him. He slowly blinked his eyes, and looked back at her. “I thought we were here to study?” she asked him, closing the book in her hand and letting it drop to the blanket with a soft plop.

“We know all this!” Sirius replied and scooted over closer to her. His hand enveloped hers lightly and the other reached up and caressed her chin.

“I just want us ready for N.E.W.Ts, that's all,” Lina replied, and her lashes dropped to cover her eyes from his gaze.

“Too much study can be as bad as too little,” Sirius' thumb played along the line of her lips and his fingers ran soothingly beneath the fall of her hair. He grinned when she looked up at him, “Why such the bother with it?” he asked, and then gathered her close when she laid her head upon his shoulder.

“Lils and I have gotten an apartment near St Mungo's,” Lina said, her words slightly muffled into his shirt. “Instead of going home for the summer before starting Healer studies, I'm going to begin them right away. Lils doesn't want to go home either,” Salina sighed and lifted her face to look at his face.

Sirius had gone with the Marauders to Lily's parents' funeral a few months ago. He hadn't been sure they'd be welcome, but Remus had thought it a good idea – calling it a show of Gryffindor support if nothing else. Peter couldn't go because of a detention for failing a Potions exam, so it had left just him, Prongs and Moony to get ready and go. Uncomfortably wearing the blackest of Muggle dress wear, he'd arrived between the other two. There he'd seen her standing beside Lily, and Petunia and her new husband had been there also.

There had been an argument between the two sisters about Lily's returning to Hogwarts, and Dursley's pug face had only grown redder when the three young wizards had made their appearance next to Lily and Salina. He didn't like the man one bit – and couldn't understand how the Evanses had created such a bitter old woman in the body of the young Petunia.

“I'm returning!” Lily had retorted back, her eyes shining with tears. The caskets that contained their parents just in sight's reach, she glanced at them before letting the tears fall. That's when Sirius realized the true depths of James feeling for their pretty friend as James wrapped her in his arms and turned her away from her last remaining relatives.

“Now is not the time for this,” Sirius heard Salina say quietly, but forcefully to the Dursleys. He watched her step between them and James and Lily, seeing Remus going to stand beside her, he did the same. He felt a small twinge of something as his saw her slip her arm through Moony's, and it grew as she leaned slightly closer to him.

“She's my sister!” Petunia's voice sounded shriller to his ears, and Lily's sobs grew louder. The eyes of the other mourners now focused morbidly on them, and he stepped closer to Lina to block Lily and James further from view.

“She's grieving- let the argument go,” Remus said just as quietly as Lina had, and his words had Petunia crying.

“All of this is your kind's fault!” Vernon hissed out, but he turned to hold his wife in his arms. “Don't think we won't forget this.” They walked away towards the other the Muggle mourners, but Dursley kept an angry eye towards their way.

“Bloody pig!” Sirius whispered lowly. His eyebrow quirked when he felt the unthinkable, Salina's fingers threading through his. He turned his head to look down, and saw the smile that flittered across her face before it buried in his shoulder.

Sirius could well understand why Lily wouldn't return home willingly, but what was Salina's reasoning? The past few years had been a straining between her family and her, they going closer to accepting the Pureblood frenzy boiling around them and her choosing to allow that Muggleborns and Half-Bloods were just as good as Purebloods.

The look on her face as she gazed up at him shook him. This wasn't the fun-loving and sometimes goofy best-mate he had grown up with, but the more serious side that had held him, snogged with him and helped him through being cut off from his family.

“Love?” Sirius said, pulling her even closer until he felt the rhythm of her heartbeat against him. “Why aren't you going home?” he asked her, wanting to joke but felt the gravity of the moment. Though they had loved and snogged the past few months, they rarely talked about their families. He felt like a cad for not noticing she obviously was struggling.

“Last month, when I went home for Christopher's birthday – I saw it!” Lina's words burst out, “The Mark,” her head shook, and Sirius' jaw dropped slightly. Her older brother meant everything in the world to Salina.

“Where?” He asked, remembering the last time he'd seen Christopher in Diagon Alley with Lina. He'd received a cold shoulder, and he could only watch as his former friend had pulled Salina away from him. Being cut off from the Black family and labeled a Blood Traitor had effected even that friendship.

“On his arm!” Salina moved to stand, and Sirius let loose of her in his shock to watch her pace across the blanket and the grass that covered the small alcove they were hidden in. He had honestly thought she had meant one floating in the sky like it had over the Evans' house so many months ago. To know that the Wallaces had gone over to that side finally and not straddling the fence like before scared him. Was this why Lina was keeping them a secret? So her family didn't find out and part them?



The rat slipped between the feet that belonged to Alice and Frank silently and skittered past them through the Common room and up the stairs to the boys dorm rooms. His small paws pushed at the opening in the door until there was room for him to squeeze through. The wood caught against the briar thorn in his leg, and a small squeak escaped him. His beady eyes looked around, his whiskers moving with the quickness of his nose. It was safe, not even his friends were in the room as he began his transformation from rat to young man.

“Bloody witches!” Peter Pettigrew mumbled out while reaching his hand out to fully close the door. “Taking my friends from me! Why can't they just- OW!” he shouted as his fingers pulled out the thorn from his skin. A thin trail of blood ran through the hair on his leg, and he grabbed a washcloth and held it to it.

“I'll teach them, you watch....” Peter mumbled out again, “Bloody rotters, them all!”