ʜᴏɢᴡᴀʀᴛs, 1977

┍T┚ʜᴇ ɴᴇᴡs sᴘʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟɪᴋᴇ ғɪᴇɴᴅғʏʀᴇ, ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ʙʀᴇᴀᴋᴜᴘ ʙᴇᴛᴡᴇᴇɴ sɪʀɪᴜs ᴀɴᴅ ᴇᴍᴍᴀ, with people speculating that Sirius has cheated on Emma, or Emma dumped him because he was still hooked up on Mia.

Sirius walked over to the Gryffindor Table at breakfast to find a very pale Remus smiling at him brightly.

"What?" Sirius asked, taking a seat opposite him before pouring a cup of coffee for himself. "Stop looking at me like that, go back to your brooding."

"Mhmm." Remus mumbled before taking a large bite from his sausage and bacon sandwich. "Shoaeryekinkomeea?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Sirius asked, "Is this a new side effect that I've never heard of?"

Remus gulped down his pumpkin juice before answering, "I said, Are you going out with Mia?"

"What, no! I need to win back her affection! And it's too soon." Sirius declared, before chugging down his mug of coffee and standing up. "And I need to get a move on!" He ran off, leaving Remus, to go find his secret contact.

"Twat." Marlene spat out, "What do you want?" She asked, her hand reaching for a spare Charms book to throw at his head in case he said anything stupid.

"I need your help?" Sirius asked, his hands stuffed into his robes pockets as he nervously looked at his only chance of getting back together with Mia.

"It's nearly lesson time." She dismissed him before moving to leave the library.

But Sirius was one stubborn Gryffindor.

Stepping in front of her, with his arms crossed, Sirius squared his chest as much as he could before gritting out, "I want Mia back."

"I know." Marlene smiled at him, as though she had his destruction button that would blow him to bits and pieces.

"Really?" He asked, surprised.

"No." Marlene smirked, "With you snogging the daylights out of Emma Clackton, Mia was gutted."

"And I want to win her back."

"What is she, a toy?" Marlene asked, her face unimpressed. "Are you going to dump her when you feel like it."

"No. She's a woman. And she's not a toy." Sirius argued, his eyebrows furrowing with every word he said. "And I just— I yearn for her. I'm craving her gentle touch, I want to make her smile and laugh. I just want her back."

Marlene was silent for a second before remarking, "How poetic. Well you aren't going to win her back with your sappy bullshit. Trust comes first."

"Teach me."

"Hang on. Tit for tat, I want something in return." Marlene smiled at him, "An invite to your birthday."

"Granted. We'll meet after Transfiguration, I'm in the mood to bunk Divination. I don't wanna hear about my future imprisonment or early death by a blood relative." Sirius pulled out a red ribbon from his robe pocket before handing it to Marlene, "Your invitation."

Everyone knew that you needed a familiar scarlet red ribbon to be allowed entry into Sirius' extravagent annual birthdays. The ribbon, only handed out by the Marauders, was charmed so that it couldn't be doubled or mimicked and they would know if you weren't invited.

Everyone knew not to sneak in if they weren't invited.

Examples included Henry Goldstein and his face full of boils, Natalie Eagle and her balding and Greta Parkinson with her constant singing.

Marlene smiled gratefully before slipping the ribbon into her bag.

"Fine. Divination." Sirius skipped off.

Mia had been through two disastrous periods of Advance Transfiguration and Herbology, with the N.E.W.Ts workload taking a toll on her mental stability and her failure to remember three types of poisonous vines. It was now time for Defence Against The Dark Arts, and she was prepared to propel herself out of one of the classroom windows if it all got too much.

Walking into the classroom, she spotted Marlene chatting with Mary McDonald, so she dragged herself over to another empty double desk.

Knackered, she roughly dragged her back onto her lap and pulled out her quill and ink pot, a few pieces of parchment, and her textbook.

Lightly resting her head on the desk, she gently closed her eyes as she waited for Professor Higgins to arrive.

"Mia!" A loud voice exclaimed from beside her, with a bang on the desk as they dumped their bag on their desk. Mia jolted up in alarm, and immediately turned her head to give the person a dirty glare.

Sirius.

His shirt was untucked, his tie loosely done and his robes were dusty.

He smiled at her brightly before taking a seat next to her before abruptly getting up and pulling open his satchel to take out a ribbon?

"Here." He handed the limp red ribbon to her before sitting back down, dumping his bag next to the desk.

Confused, Mia lightly ran the ribbon through her fingertips and silently questioned the object. Was it a token of affection, a sign of his undying love for her?

'Don't be stupid,' she thought, 'Sirius doesn't love you.'

"What is it?" She asked, putting the ribbon inside her robe pocket and scrawling down the lesson's key points.

"Birthday invite. This Friday, 9pm." He answered, "Don't forget my gift."

"Woah. Who said anything about a gift?" Mia teased, as she continued to list the five most common boggarts.

"You don't have to, you know. I was just joking—. About the gift, of course. You're still invited to come to the party— I mean I'd like it if you came to the party but I guess you don't have to—." He nervously rambled, scribbling circles on his parchment.

"Sirius." She smiled, "I'll come. And I'll bring a gift."

"Great. Just note that the ribbon is entry for one, not two or three or four—." He emphasised on the not for two people bit.

"Sirius. I'm not bringing Amos to the party." She slowly reassured him, watching as his expression had a hint of relief and glee. It was as though she'd told him that he was off a death sentence.

The lesson continued as usual, with Sirius cracking cheesy jokes and puns, and Mia struggling to contain her laughter in.

Fortunately, the rest of the class was also talking amongst themselves so Professor Higgins hadn't noticed.

"And your homework for this week is a five-inch essay on Boggarts." He informed the class before yelling, "DISMISSED!"

Students bustled out the room and left for their lunch.

Mia watched as James Potter walked over to their desk.

"You ready to go, Pads?" He asked, flinging his arm around the black-haired teenager.

"Yup. See you on Friday, love!" Sirius exclaimed as James dragged him away.

Neatly putting her parchment into her bag, Mia didn't notice a figure walk into the classroom and towards her. They walked up to her and slowly put their hands on her shoulders.

"Sirius?" She asked, assuming that the boy had forgotten something.

"Issa Amos." Amos replied, throwing jazz hands as he greeted his girlfriend? He lightly kissed her on her cheek and took her bag from the desk. "I'll carry it."

They walked out the classroom, hand in hand, towards the Great Hall.

Immediately greeted by the smell of hot food, Amos dragged Mia towards the Hufflepuff table and started to plate food for the pair of them.

Sirius watched from the neighbouring table with narrowed eyes. Remus spotting his dark expression, immediately put his hand on the boy to make him sit down.

"Don't do anything rash." The sandy-brown haired boy told off his friend. "You have to remember who did what first."

"No offence Moony, but you need to be more concerned about eating enough today. Time of month today, remember? I'll be right back." Sirius rushed off, making Remus let out a sigh of frustration.

"Mia!" She turned around at the sound of Sirius' voice. Amos put down his glass of water to cock an eyebrow at the Gryffindor who made his way over to their table.

"Can I help you?" Amos asked, casually but deliberately putting his hand on Mia's on the table. "We're in the middle of lunch here, so why don't you come back later?"

"If you didn't hear, I was calling out Mia's name, not Diggory." Sirius replied, before turning his attention to Mia.

"Can you help me with my Potions homework?" He asked, bringing out his best puppy face and resisting the chance to flip Amos a very crude gesture.

"Um. Sure—." She replied, but being cut off by Amos.

"She's busy." Wide-eyed, Mia turned to look at Amos, who shrugged.

"I'll be happy to help you, Sirius. In fact, I can help you after dinner!" She smiled, taking her hand off from under Amos' and resting it on her knee instead.

Sirius smirked at Amos, who glared at the Gryffindor.

"See you then." 'Game on, Diggory.'

"Are you seriously going to tutor him?" Amos asked, incredulously, as though she'd agreed to nakedly go run around Hogsmeade and paint herself a bright neon pink. The couple had finished their dinner and were now standing in the middle of an empty corridor.

"Is there something wrong, Amos?" Mia asked coldly, turning back to look at him from the window.

"You're going to go tutor your ex, alone."

"And?"

"I want to come with you."

"Don't be fucking stupid."