Sirius awoke the next morning fairly early. He had forgotten to close his curtains the previous night and had been woken by the bright colours of sunrise that streamed in through the window. For some reason he was thinking about Ernie. He couldn't get his friend off his mind, as though he was near, as though the information that Ernie was near was running through his mind constantly, circling round and round.

"Ernie." It came out as barely a whisper, but it comforted him, it helped an ache he didn't even know he had. "Where are you?"

It was strange, as if someone had heard him, footsteps sounded on the stairs and his bedroom door was flung open.

"I am never leaving you again." Sirius found himself in someones arms. Confused, it took his frazzled brain almost a minute to catch up.

"Ern?" The shock in his voice was clear.

"I missed you far too much." Ernie replied, he still held Sirius tightly.

"I missed you too Ern, but what are you doing here?" Sirius frowned into his friends shoulder. Ernie had had a growth spurt over the weeks they hadn't seen each other and was starting to tower over him.

"I came early, I was worried about you." Ernie replied. "You haven't replied to any of my letters."

"I haven't..." Sirius asked with a confused frown. He'd been so worried with Gideon, his prophecy, Elias and Ollie he hadn't even opened his letters let alone read and replied to them. "Ern I'm so sorry."

"Its okay, I'm just glad you're alright." Ernie responded, he pulled Sirius close to him again. "You're an idiot, you know that right?"

Sirius laughed feebly, his mind still wandering off. He felt safer than he had all summer, in his best friends arms. He hadn't realised how much Ernie meant to him before now.

"Sirius this house... its suffocating." Ernie told him. Sirius nodded, it was the best way to describe the old building. The layers of years and years of history captured in the fabric of the building gave Sirius the most awful headache as he tried desperately to constantly block out the actions of the previous occupants of the house. "I don't know how you're coping with it." At this Sirius just shrugged. Neither did he.

"Come on, why don't we go out somewhere?" He finally suggested. Ernie shook his head.

"I'm tired, please just lay with me for a bit." He asked, flopping down onto Sirius' bed and dragged the shorter boy with him. It seemed such a strange request for Ernie to ask, despite being good friends, they had never really just laid and cuddled together. Sure, they rested limbs on each other, fell asleep on each other, but the request to lie with him seemed so strange to Sirius, and it gave him a strange feeling, but not a bad feeling, just a feeling of safety. He wasn't sure what it was, but he was content to lie beside Ernie, barely even noticing his friend cuddling into his side, wrapping his arms around his middle.

"Happy birthday Sirius." That was the last thing Sirius had expected his friend to say, Ernie's head was at his shoulder, so close to him that he could feel his breath on his neck. But it didn't bother him, not at all.

"What?" Sirius frowned, it couldn't be the first of August already.

"Its your birthday." Ernie replied, "I've got some fun plans for later."

"I didn't even know." Sirius mumbled.

"Its okay, it's this house, messing up your brain waves." Ernie messed up his friends hair as he said this. Sirius had to laugh, although it came out as a giggle. Ernie sat up.

"That was the cutest noise I've ever heard in my life." He announced, making Sirius blush bright red.

"Ern." He mumbled, hiding his face from his friend.

"I'm being serious." Ernie told him, speaking through his fingers at his friend he knew it wasn't the time to make the name joke. "I've never heard you giggle before."

Sirius just shrugged as Ernie lay back down pulling Sirius with him. "So what have you got planned?"

"All in good time my friend, all in good time." Ernie replied, not giving anything away. Sirius promptly gave up asking and rested his head on his friends chest, so he would be in a comfier position considering the way Ernie held him. Or at least that's what he told himself it was for.

^^^
"Sirius, Sirius!" Ernie shook the boy awake gently. "Come on, we have lots to do."

"I thought we were gonna celebrate with the others." Sirius frowned, sitting up.

Ernie laughed. "We will, but we can also celebrate on your actual birthday." He replied pulling his friend off his bed. Although Ernie and Sirius weren't as close as he and Justin they still had a deep understanding of one another. Ernie seemed to understand better than the others exactly the toll everything was actually taking on Sirius.

"Alright then." Sirius followed Ernie out of his room and out of the house, the pressure that he had gotten so used to leaving his head once they were out of the heavy atmosphere of the house.

"Come on, don't look so glum." Ernie told him, stopping to look at the shorter boy.

"Sorry." Sirius muttered.

"Hey, it's your birthday. Just forget about what's worrying you for one day." Ernie told him. Sirius nodded.

"Okay."

"Great, let's go." Ernie smiled at him and Sirius had to smile back. He had missed his friend a lot.

Sirius followed Ernie into the streets of Rome, wondering what on earth he had planned. They ended up at a small restaurant, choosing their food quickly and when it arrived eating at once.

Ernie pulled the daily prophet out of his bag when they had finished.

"Have you read this yet?" He asked, Sirius shook his head. "Death eaters attacked the final of the Quidditch world cup.

"Ern, Cedric was there." Sirius' eyes widened. "So was Harry."

"I'm sure they're both fine." Ernie said, although he didn't sound convinced.

"I'm going to call Ced's house, he gave me the number." Sirius told him.

"Why does Cedric have a house phone?" Ernie frowned, most wizarding families did not have muggle electronics in their home.

"His mum is muggle-born, wants to be able to keep in contact with her friends and family." Sirius explained, Ernie paying for their meal before he could object.

"Its your birthday, you aren't paying." He said. "Come on then, let's go and see if Ced's alright."

They found a pay phone a street away, and Sirius quickly paid and punched in the number.

"Hello, Diggory residence." It was not a voice Sirius recognised so he concluded it to be Cedric's father.

"Hi, it's Sirius, Sirius Potter, I heard what happened at the world cup and was worried, is Cedric there?" Sirius asked all at once.

"That's very kind of you, I can assure you we are fine, but I'll go and get Cedric for you."

The line went silent for a moment, Sirius glanced at Ernie, who smiled at him encouragingly.

"Sirius?"

"Cedric! Are you Alright?"

"I'm fine, honestly I am, they didn't come near our part of the campsite.: Cedric explained. "You should have come, it was a great match."

"I don't know much about Quidditch Ced, you know that." Sirius replied.

"I still want to teach you how to play, I think it'll be fun." Cedric mused. "Hey you should come over for a week or two."

"I'm in Rome with Ernie at the moment Ced, Hannah and Justin are supposed to be joining us." Sirius explained.

"You all should come, the more the merrier." Cedric insisted. "Come on Sirius, it'll be fun."

Sirius covered the receiver of the phone and looked at Ernie. "You want to go to Cedric's for a week or two?"

"Yeah okay, I do have to go back home for my grand birthday though." Ernie nodded.

"Sure, we'd love to." Sirius finally answered.

"Brilliant! Why don't you come on Thursday, I'll meet you at the train station."

"Alright Ced, see you then."

"See you!"

"I did not expect that." Sirius said as he began walking back to the house. "We'd better go and write to the others." He added.

"I'm kinda excited, I bet Cedric's house is well cool." Ernie grinned.

^^^
"Where have you been?" Ollie asked when the two entered the house. "We were supposed to be training today."

"Sorry Ollie-" Sirius began, but Ernie cut him off.

"That was me, I appeared unexpectedly and commandeered him, sorry." He grinned. "Oh and we're leaving on Thursday." He added, dragging Sirius up the stairs.

"Ernie, that was really rude." Sirius said gently.

"Sorry, he kinda pissed me off." Ernie shrugged. "Hey you got a letter from Han."

Opening the letter, Sirius read aloud what Hannah had written. Her cousin had just had a baby and the whole Abbot family had rallied round to help out and her parents had made it clear there would be no fun for her, only babysitting her cousins other four children.

"Wow." Ernie said. "Guess we just let Justin know what's going on."

"I guess so."