May 1978

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

                "We've been together for months, you know, but I haven't officially asked you out yet," Sirius hummed.

Thea momentarily looked up from the book she was reading.

Her head rested in his lap, her book propped up on his stomach as he talked enthusiastically to the boys and Lily. 

"I thought that the thing at Hogsmeade was a date," she mumbled, not tearing her eyes away from the words on the page.

"Well, Lil said it was a friend-date, so no, it doesn't count," Sirius said in an amused voice.

"Well what were you thinking of?" Thea asked, looking up at him and smiling.

He grinned wickedly.

"I thought you'd never ask," he said.

Thea had a confused look on her face as her book was torn from her hands and chucked across the room. 

"Lads, I'll see you later. My beautiful girlfriend and I have to go on our first date," Sirius exclaimed.

He dragged Thea off of the Gryffindor couch and towards the portrait hole.

"Sirius, what are you doing?" Thea asked, struggling against his grip.

"We're going on our first date, love," he said with a grin.

Thea sighed and stopped resisting as the Gryffindor boy pulled her across the castle. 

"Can't this wait until a better time? I have loads to do," Thea tried protesting one last time.

"Nope," Sirius said over his shoulder, popping the 'p'. 

He then said something in Latin to a suit of armor that stood aside, revealing a passage.

"So that's how you lot get everywhere," Thea breathed out.

"Come along," Sirius called out.

He dragged her through the passage and out into a field. He had a mischievous glint in his eye when he spotted it.

"That's the Shrieking Shack," Thea said, obviously nervous.

"The what?" Sirius asked.

"The Shrieking Shack. You know, the one that's haunted," Thea stated.

"Haunted?" Sirius asked as he burst out laughing.

"Well you may not believe in spirits, but not all of us are Gryffindors for a reason," Thea said as she started to resist his pull.

He did not relent.

"What is life without a little risk?" Sirius asked as an amused smile played on his lips. 

Thea sighed in defeat.

"Don't tell me that you, the great Thea Potter, who can break into the dark lord's mind, is scared of a couple of rumors," Sirius taunted.

Thea rolled her eyes and stopped resisting. Sirius smiled in victory. 

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," Sirius mumbled as they entered into the shack. 

If you didn't know the context, it was quite frightening. The place was completely wrecked. The furniture was torn and broken, the floorboards were completely destroyed. She did notice, however, a tunnel in the middle of the floor near where they went in the front. 

Thea felt her heart race as Sirius led her up the stairs. He pushed open a door and she saw a large bed and a piano. 

"Sirius, if you wanted to- you know- you could've at least picked a better location," Thea said, trying to tease him, but ending up sounding quite afraid. 

Her eyes darted around the room as she tried to find any malicious intruders. They eventually settled on a bar of half-melted chocolate on the floor. 

She struggled out of Sirius's grip, walked over and picked it up. She examined it in the light and immediately recognized it.

"This is Remus's," Thea whispered, "what would he be doing here?"

Sirius whipped his head around at the sound of his friend's name to find Thea holding a bar of Remus's favorite chocolate. His face went sheet white. He needed to get her out of here. 

"I'm sure it isn't," Sirius said as smoothly as he could. 

"Oh, I'm sure it is. Who else do you know that gets this chocolate? James has my parents ship it in every month from Belgium," Thea said as she kept looking at it. 

"Why would Remus come here?" Sirius asked, trying to divert her attention.

Thea looked up with an emotionless face and examined Sirius's. Her narrowed her eyes slightly as she carefully placed the chocolate bar down. 

"No clue," she said in a suspicious tone. 

Sirius could tell she was figuring it out in her head and if he didn't distract her, she would probably know in a couple of minutes. 

"That's not what I wanted to show you," he said with a quick smile.

She arched her brow in anticipation.

"The acoustics here are incredible, probably because it's abandoned, so-" he said as he gestured over to the piano, "I wanted to play for you."

"You play the piano?" Thea asked, a smile forming itself on her face.

Sirius nodded, "mum used to make me. All the kids in her circle played, so learned how to play."

Thea crossed over and sat down on the bed as Sirius sat on the piano bench. 

The first couple of chords of Schubert's Swan Song ran out and Thea sighed. An easy smile formed as she watched him. The way his hands moved so expertly, the way his eyes furrowed in concentration, but a small smiled played on his lips. The way that she could tell that even though he was forced into this, he found something good in it. 

When he finished, she clapped and he looked up. He smiled as he never really played the piano for anyone. Only once or twice for the boys ( although he played the piano version of Killer Queen ) and whenever Regulus requested it, but that had been a long time ago.

It felt good. He liked the way it sounded and he liked the resistance of the keys and most of all, he loved who was listening to him play. He loved that he had taught himself her favorite piece of music after the full moons when everyone was passed out. He loved that her favorite piece was from a muggle composer. He loved the way that she looked sitting on that bed. 

He loved the way that she called him out on his bullshit. He loved the way she tried to get him to reconnect with Regulus, even though it pissed him off in the moment. He loved the way she always held him on the common room couches after a bad dream. 

He loved the way she would cry when she was laughing really hard. He loved the way she loved silence. He loved how much she loved going into the Forbidden Forest after hours and not getting caught because Lily and James would never reprimand her. He loved the way she'd go only to take care of the woodland creatures.

He loved the way his heart raced whenever she entered a room. He loved the way he would only pay attention in class, so time would go faster, so he could kiss her in the hallways. He loved how kind her eyes were. 

He loved-

Sirius crossed over to the bed and stood over her. She looked up at him and smiled, her eyes questioning what he was about to do.

"I'm not having sex on this bed, just so you know," she said quietly.

Sirius chuckled a little bit and shook his head. He leaned down slowly, cupping her face in his hands and pressed his lips to hers. 

The kiss was long and slow. It took time. It stopped time. It was filled with the quiet happiness that they were together then and only had hope for the future. No more regret. No more what ifs. 

Sirius slowly pulled away, his hands not leaving her face. He looked at her eyes, taking in the way that they shone and how pink her lips were and how rosy her cheeks were. How there were ghosts of crinkles next to her eyes as she smiled lightly. 

"I love you," he whispered. 

Her eyes softened even more and she opened her mouth to say something back, but closed it again. Her reached up and tucked a piece of hair behind his ear. 

"I love you too," she whispered back.