"we are still kids but we're so in love, fighting against all odds."

*

The shrill whistle of a tea kettle startled Sirius out of a really weird dream where some pineapples rode around on broomsticks while singing the Time Warp song on Mars. He rubbed his aching forehead, wondering why it hurt so badly, and rolled over, expecting to just stretch out on the bed and fall asleep again.

Instead, he almost fell off of a narrow couch, grabbing onto the armrest to save himself.

"Say cheese."

A bright flash went off in his face and he yelped in surprise. He grabbed a pillow and shoved it over his head to hide his disheveled state.

"Oi, Evans! Put that stupid thing down or I'll hex you!"

Lily giggled, lowering the camera. "Hi Sirius."

"What in the bloody hell are you doing in my apartment, anyway?" He grumbled. However, one look around changed the confused boy's question. "Um, what are we doing in Blondie's apartment?"

It wasn't his home, after all. He had somehow ended up on his fiancé's couch, and he wasn't alone, either. A few feet away, a snoring Peter slept on an armchair, a blanket thrown haphazardly over his small form. And on the floor in front of the fire, a stag snoozed peacefully.

"Sweet Merlin, Remus is gone for a few days and this is what you lot get into without him?" Eva commented, plopping down on the cushion next to him. She kissed his cheek and pressed a cup of tea into his hands, but he didn't react at all, still hopelessly confused. "Do you remember last night at all?"

Sirius tried to recall anything that happened after work the day before. "Um, the three of us went out for dinner after work. Prongs heard really good things about this new pub. I think there were drinks."

Lily smirked and said, "yeah, I think so too."

"Shut up, Evans." He massaged his temple, trying to banish the headache. "The last thing I actually remember is when we decided to drink Moony's share of alcohol since he wasn't there to do it himself."

"That would explain a lot." Eva grinned. She brushed some hair out of his face. "You and Pete showed up here around two in the morning singing songs from Rocky Horror Picture Show and carrying a loopy stag above your heads."

"So that's why the pineapples were singing," he mumbled under his breath, ignoring the weird looks both of the girls gave him. He turned to Eva, cringing. "Sorry we just crashed your apartment."

"Don't worry about it. You're lucky it's a Saturday, though. Imagine you show up to work for Moody looking like this."

"Excuse me, I always look fabulous!"

"Stop bragging and drink your tea. It should help with the hangover." Eva rolled her eyes as Sirius stared at the drink dubiously. "I didn't brew the potion, okay? Lils did. I just combined it with the tea and added the sugar. Two scoops, just like you like it."

"Ah. Cheers." He took a big gulp and flashed her a cheeky smile.

The telephone rang, interrupting their playful banter, and Eva ran across the room to get it. Not many people called her and each time one did, excitement filled up the girl. It was the same story with the mail. The little things in life brought her the most joy. She picked up the pink corded phone and answered with a bright "hello!"

"It worked! Phones are so weird. They're like automatic Howlers!"

"Regulus?"

"Reg?" Sirius asked from the couch, shock in his voice. "Really? He's on the phone? He actually knows how to use one?"

"Shhh! Yes, I taught him before term ended." Eva held up a hand to shush her talkative fiance, who let out a bark-like laugh and took another sip of tea. Lily flopped down on an armchair and snapped a few embarrassing shots of their sleeping friends. "Not that it isn't nice to talk to you, because it really is, but should you really be calling me? Is it safe for you?"

"Relax. I'm at a payphone ten blocks from my parents' place. Don't worry, I'm not reckless and I'm not stupid. I'll be fine."

Eva grinned and twisted the phone cord between her fingers. "Still," she murmured. "Okay, what's up?"

"Is Sirius okay? I was taking a walk late last night and he was chasing after some idiot riding a deer down 45th Street. I think it might have been Pettigrew? I yelled for him but they were already gone. I'm surprised no one called the Muggle authorities."

"Oh yeah," she laughed. "Yeah, he's fine. They all are."

"Even the deer? That was borderline animal abuse," he joked. Eva liked hearing the humor in his voice. It had been so long.

"The deer's fine too. Thanks for checking on them. They showed up here late last night." Eva hopped up onto the island in her kitchen and crossed her legs. "How've you been?"

A beat of silence passed between them. "Fine. You?"

Eva knew he was lying, but calling him out on the phone wouldn't change anything. "I'm all right."

"Stop having a super long conversation with my baby brother and come take care of me!" Sirius whined, bringing a smile to her face.

"Take care of yourself!" Lily laughed.

"Wait, is that Sirius? Tell him to man up!"

"Sirius, your baby brother wants you to man up!" Eva called loud enough for Regulus to hear. The younger Black burst out laughing.

"I'm so glad you're marrying him. You two are perfect for each other."

"Yeah, me too." She winked at Sirius, who sighed dramatically and fanned himself with his hand. "He's being a complete diva as always, so I'm gonna go. Don't be a stranger, Reg. Call again, we'll get breakfast or something. I can't tonight, Sirius and I are going out, but another time definitely."

"You're going out? Tonight?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure what we're doing. We'll be somewhere in London. Why?"

"Eva?"

He sounded breathless, almost like he was afraid of something. Eva drew in a deep breath and gripped the cord a bit too tightly.

"Yeah?"

Silence followed. "Nothing. Never mind. Just, uh... be careful tonight. It's crazy out there."

"Um, okay. Bye." She hung up, feeling slightly unsettled. What was it he wanted to tell her?

"Eva? You okay?" Lily asked. Her forehead wrinkled in concern.

Eva plastered a bright smile on her face and nodded. "Yeah."

"That last gin was so not worth this," Peter mumbled facedown into the chair. Both girls giggled, and the tenseness feeling in the air dissipated.

"Wormtail, welcome back to the land of the living," Sirius said, bowing. He looked a bit better now that he'd drank the healing tea. Lily passed a cup to Peter, who perked up and thanked her profusely.

Everyone in the room turned to the sleeping stag, who only snored obnoxiously.

"Should we wake him up?" Eva whispered, amused. Lily hopped up from her place perched on the armrest.

"On it." With a sarcastic salute, she brandished her wand and approached the stag, pointing it right at the animal's face. "Aguamenti."

Jets of frigid water sprayed him in the face. The stag jumped up and almost fell on its wobbly legs, like a fawn attempting to stand for the first time. He looked around the room, his head whipping back and forth, his antlers nearly knocking decorations off of the mantle, and transformed back with a startled pop.

"Hi Prongs!" Peter greeted. "You finally did it, huh? Got so drunk that you couldn't figure out how to transform back?"

"Bloody hell, Lily!" James exclaimed, shaking his hair out and showering her in water droplets in the process. "Just wait until I get you. I'll-"

"Do what?" Lily asked innocently, snatching the glasses right off of his face before he could even react. "Whatever your revenge is, you'll be getting it blind."

"Hey! That's against the laws of pranking!" Peter defended his friend. "You can't just take a man's glasses! Not cool, Evans. Not cool at all."

Eva grinned and walked over to the couches, tripping on the corner of the coffee table, an almost daily occurrence. Luckily, Sirius grabbed her around the waist and pulled her onto the couch with him, both laughing hysterically.

"No, I think I look good in them." Lily slid them onto her nose, ruffled her hair, and posed. "I'm James Potter. I play Quidditch and have the attention span of a five-year-old boy."

"One, that sounds absolutely nothing like me. Two, Padfoot, help a mate out!" James lunged for his glasses but stubbed his toe on a chair and groaned.

"Nope. I'm with my future wife," Sirius said, cuddling Eva closer to him.

"Dude, you're violating the bro code! Bros before-"

Lily raised her eyebrows and leaned back on the couch, drumming her fingers on the cushion. "Finish the statement, Potter. I dare you."

"Bros before everything except girlfriends, apparently."

"That's more like it. Help yourself, will you? I'm otherwise occupied." Sirius tried to steal a kiss from Eva, who shoved him away.

"You smell like an old drunk!"

"Technically, I'm a young drunk..."

"I'm not kissing you until you shower," she insisted, laughing as he faux pouted. "And brush your teeth."

He raised an eyebrow. "You love me."

"I never said I didn't. I just said you smell. I think it would be dangerous to have an open flame around you three."

Lily giggled and placed her boyfriend's rectangular glasses back on his face, lightly kissing his nose. "Get out of here, boys."

James grabbed some Floo powder from the painted urn Eva kept near the fireplace. Then with a wink, he messed up Lily's hair and jumped into the flames, yelling his address before Lily could smack him.

"Thanks for letting us stay here," Peter said earnestly to Eva, smiling shyly before following James home.

Sirius scooped up some Floo powder but turned to Eva, a question in his gray eyes. "I'll pick you up at seven?"

"Where are we going?"

"I have no idea."

"Sounds good to me. See you later!"

With a wink, Sirius Black disappeared into the emerald flames, as always, leaving Eva wanting something more.

*

"Can I tell you something?"

Most of Sirius and Eva's outings tended to be casual. Neither really set store by fancy nights out. They reminded Sirius too much of his childhood and Eva hated restaurants where people judged if she laughed too loudly for their taste. Instead, they chose simple dates where they could just be together. Sometimes they rode his motorcycle to drive-in movies or went to watch Quidditch matches. They also liked staying in at either of their apartments and just watching TV, snuggled up on the couch under thick blankets.

On this particular night, their date ended up taking place at a small park in London, which was all but deserted in the evening. They bought way too many soft pretzels and colas for dinner and brought them up on top of the playset, cheerfully ignoring the guidelines labeling the area for kids '12 and Under.' Their legs continuously tangled and untangled as they swung them back and forth, a few feet from the ground due to their spots on the top of a set of red monkey bars, the paint-chipped metal hot from July heat. Two ice-cold bottles of Coke floated lazily in the air, bobbing with the light breeze.

Sirius glanced over at Eva, who bit her lip and glanced down, smiling. He stole a bite of her third pretzel and said, "yeah, shoot."

"I don't want a big wedding."

He shrugged. "Okay."

"I'm not kidding!" She said earnestly, maneuvering herself so that she could face him without falling off. It had already happened once. "If it wasn't for our friends, I'd drag you all the way to Las Vegas tonight so we could elope. I'd do it tonight, I swear."

"Vegas, huh? That's a long trip just to get married," he joked, trying to keep the mood light. "Any particular reason?"

"It's just... all of these disappearances are freaking me out. It feels like the world's ending. And what if the world ends before ours gets to begin? I don't like the waiting. It's not like either of us really have a lot of family members to invite."

Both of Eva's parents were dead. She grew up knowing that her father would never dance with her at her wedding, would never walk her down the aisle, but she always imagined that her mother would be there. As for Sirius, he didn't want the majority of his family there, except for Regulus and maybe Andromeda.

"I didn't think about it like that," Sirius said slowly, "but I don't like the waiting, either."

"I know I'm thinking about something that isn't even a problem. I'm just worried," she admitted. "Lily and Marlene keep asking me how the planning's going, and all I can say is we plan on getting married. That's it. We haven't sorted anything else out, but it feels like the longer we wait, the worse the world gets. It doesn't feel like the right time for a wedding."

"Well, that's because it really isn't the right time for one." Sirius winked. He tried to steal another bite of Eva's pretzel, but she learned from last time and held it away from him, causing him to almost fall off of the monkey bars. Once he pulled himself back into a sitting position, he continued. "But in some ways, I think the timing's perfect. With everything going on, we don't have to wait so long to do the things we want to do."

"What, like asking me to marry you?" She smirked.

"Nah, that would have happened anyway," he said. "Don't worry about it. Look at Frank and Alice! They got married two weeks after graduation. Literally just their parents and a few of us were there, and it was a great ceremony, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, it was," Eva replied, smiling as she remembered the day Alice Fortescue became Alice Longbottom, but the smile faded. "What if we wait too long and something happens?"

"Well, I reckon we're both far too impatient to do that," Sirius said with a grin. "Waiting too long isn't our style."

"I just think the whole big wedding thing is completely unnecessary."

"To be fair, a small wedding's probably better money-wise, too." He winked. "You know, with me being cut off from the family inheritance and you being a lowly secretary."

"You're so mean to me," she teased, fake pouting. Then she shook her head and giggled. "I don't care about floofy dresses or fancy cakes or big venues. The only thing I care about being there is you."

He leaned closer and tapped her nose with his. "I am not a thing, Blondie."

"Shut up, Black," she teased, returning the action. He frowned at her words and she instantly felt bad, although she was confused as to how she'd actually upset him. "Sorry. I guess I didn't mean that."

"No, that had nothing to do with anything you said." He exhaled, choosing to look out at the fading sun instead of her. "I can't believe you actually want to be a Black."

She blinked. That's what this was about? "Why would you say that?"

He smiled humorlessly. "Because we're horrible?"

"You're not," she pointed out.

"But you'll still get lumped in with my lot. I know we haven't been talking much about wedding planning, but I haven't really brought it up just in case, you know, you wanted to back out."

"What?" She asked sharply. "I said it a million times and I'll say it again: shut up, Black."

"Eva-"

"No, listen to me for once. I don't care what people think and I never have. You are my best friend and you're the man I want to be with forever. I don't want to be a Black. I want to be Sirius' wife. End of story." To cement her point, she kissed a still-silent Sirius before leaning back and taking a sip of her soda. "Sweet Merlin, did I finally find your mute button?"

He finally recovered. "Nah. I was just thinking. I've been thinking about it for a long time, actually. Once the war is over and we finally get to live in peace and rainbows and all of that stuff they're promising us, do you maybe want to switch last names to yours?"

Eva snatched her cola out of air, surprised. "Really? I promise, I'm not upset about being a Black."

"I know you aren't. I believe you." Sirius ran a hand through his long hair, messing it up then smoothing it out over and over again, one of his nervous habits. "I have so much hate for my last name, but I love the idea of having yours."

For some reason, Eva felt like crying. Maybe out of sadness for her fiancé's terrible past, maybe out of gratefulness because she had somehow managed to find someone as wonderful as him. She placed her hand on top of his and smiled.

"If that's what you want, I love that idea."

"And I love you." He kissed her gently but passionately, then pulled away. "Tell me something you do want for our wedding. We'll make a list of what we actually know."

"I actually had an idea about who I wanted to walk me down the aisle, considering both of my parents aren't here anymore."

"Who are you thinking?"

She smiled shyly. "Professor McGonagall. And if she doesn't agree, then Mr. Potter."

"She's going to agree. She loves her little feminist Quidditch captain to pieces." Sirius hesitated, then pulled out yet another soft pretzel and began to munch on it. Auror Training took up a lot of his energy. "I'm gonna ask James to be my best man."

"I don't know who I want as my maid of honor," Eva said, her mind automatically going to her three options. How would she pick one out of her three best friends? "Won't the others be mad?"

He shook his head. "Nah. We're not jealous like that. If it gets really bad, I can cite this really old document we wrote when we were eleven. Basically, it says that I'm James' best man, he's mine, Remus is Peter's, and Peter's is Remus. No one wanted to be left out on the off chance that one of us managed to get a girl."

Eva laughed out loud and Sirius joined in as she laid her head on his shoulder.

To anyone passing by, they were just two kids in love, messing around with something they were a bit too young to fully understand. A view of the pair was clear to those on the sidewalk: the girl in her Abbey Road top, shorts, and black Chuck Taylors, dandelions stuck in her blonde curls; and the boy, in his black skinny jeans and fitted black shirt, a few woven bracelets on his left wrist, the unmistakable look of pure affection in his gray eyes.

"All right, we've got about five percent of a plan," Sirius murmured, stroking her curls gently. "But how about this: if we don't get a wedding before the end of this year, we elope on New Year's Eve. We'll start 1979 together no matter what. Deal?"

She snuggled closer. His arm wrapped around her waist, ensuring that she wouldn't fall. "Deal."

As the sky darkened, Sirius thought of a creative way to light up the night. "Expecto Patronum," he whispered, pointing his wand in front of them. He didn't really care about keeping the Wizarding World a secret. They weren't in Muggle London, no one was out, and he could vanish the charm in seconds, anyway. The park they occupied was actually across the street from the Leaky Cauldron, the entrance to Diagon Alley.

His silvery dog bounded forward, barking silently. Eva grinned and copied the incantation, letting her little butterfly flit around the canine's head. The dog chased it for a bit, always missing by inches as he lunged for the butterfly.

A faint scream pierced the air. The two patronuses faded as Sirius and Eva turned around, looking at one another in confusion.

"You did hear that, right?" Eva whispered uncertainly.

"Yeah, I did," Sirius murmured back, his face paler than it was before. It just didn't feel right. "Keep a tight grip on your wand, just in case."

Sirius hopped down from the monkey bars with grace. Eva dropped down a second later, stumbling a bit on the landing. He reached out a hand to steady her, but his real attention focused on his surroundings. His worried eyes scanned the area as he stood protectively in front of her.

He heard her icy gasp before he registered anything as out of the ordinary.

"What is it?" He asked urgently, anxiety filling his rapidly beating heart. Within seconds, her face lost all of its rosy glow. "What's wrong?"

Wordlessly, she pointed to the sky with a shaking finger. He followed her gaze and swallowed as fear consumed him.

The Dark Mark.

New chapter! Aaaaaa, I love Sirius and Eva so much. This chapter was really fun to write with all of the fluff, so I hope you enjoyed ;)

QOTD: favorite Death Eater?

AOTD: Regulus

Tell me what you think! Any predictions?

Love you all for reading this! Xo