CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
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EVERYONE HAD CERTAINLY NOTICED the drastic change in mood when it came to the two of them. They never said exactly what had happened, and denied anything when they were asked about it, but all of their friends knew exactly what was going on between the two of them. They had both agreed to keep things as casual as possible, so that none of their friends could get in the middle of it at the start.

"What do you mean?" Sirius had asked her.

"I mean, do you remember all that interrogation and opinionation when it came to us having one little snog?" she said, shrugging and moving her arms around like it made her point more credible.

"I suppose so," Sirius had agreed, shrugging along with her.

"I just don't want anyone's opinions or anything except for ours," she told him. "For the time being."

"Okay," he agreed once again, taking the opportunity to give her a kiss. She couldn't help but giggle the entire time.

The side eyes from all of their friends were something she was more than willing to ignore if it meant that they would be free from them actually saying something about it. It just felt like too much pressure for her, and she had felt just enough pressure regarding their kiss.

When they asked either of them where they were spending so much time, they just made up excuses about studying or something else that was clearly fake. Winnie was quite honestly too happy to care about what they were thinking about her excuses.

"Are you certain that there's not a Quidditch practice happening right now?" Winnie asked as they headed down the hill to the entrances to the Quidditch pitch.

Sirius skipped along the path and laughed, asking, "I thought you loved watching Quidditch?"

"And I thought that you wanted alone time," she bit back with a grin as they entered the stands. It was absolutely dead quiet.

"And would you look at that?" Sirius said, gesturing dramatically at the empty field. He pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and casually lit it with a lighter that he also kept in his pocket.

"Why don't you play? If you love it so much," he questioned, letting a puff of smoke out as he said it.

She laughed. "Because I'm complete shite at Quidditch," she replied. Sirius laughed at that too.

"And why do you use a lighter when you could easily just conjure up a flame?"

He looked down at the lighter for a moment and twisted it in his fingers before putting it back in his pocket neatly.

"My sister gave it to me," he told her, in a tone that was trying so hard to be neutral, but clearly it was something a little more than that.

"I didn't even know that you had a sister," Winnie admitted, pausing for a second as they started to weave around under the stands next to the wooden posts holding them up.

"I do," he said simply at first, hesitating but continuing on anyway. "Her name's Lydia. My family is...complicated. Not my siblings, mostly my parents."

"Louise is about the closest I've ever had to a sister," Winnie said, trying to drive the conversation in not such a parent-related direction. She knew that it was a sore subject for him.

"My condolences," he joked with a deadpan face and Winnie laughed loudly before stepping through a few posts. She was caught off guard by Sirius pressing a quick kiss to her cheek. She grabbed the cigarette out of his fingers swiftly. "Hey now, this is what I get, dear Winnie? For showering you in affection?"

She took a puff from the cigarette and blew it slowly into his face and shrugged with a grin.

"Winn, do you remember that fun little palm reading you did for James?" he asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

She scrunched her eyebrows and nodded, still smiling faintly because it was honestly ridiculous no matter what way she looked at it.

"Do mine," he encouraged. She stomped out the cigarette into the dirt. They came out of the posts under the stands and out onto the grass.

"Okay, sure," Winnie humored him and gestured for him to sit on the grass. They sat down across from each other and she gestured, far too over the top, for his hands.

She took his hands in her own and looked down at his palms. Tracing her fingers over the lines, she nodded, pretending like she was getting a lot out of it.

"So I'm getting a lot of...hm I feel like you could be doing more," she relayed, making sure it looked like she was thinking about it extremely hard.

"More?" he exasperated, dramatically sighing and nodding at her. "Go on."

"I'm being told that if you took me out on a date, then all would be absolutely right in the universe," she went on, appearing unsure at first and then nodding decidedly. "Yes, that's what I'm getting. No way around it, really."

"I didn't need a way around it, love," he said, before turning his hands over in hers and pulled her in for a kiss by the wrists.

"But it can't be in detention this time," she warned, standing up on the grass and offering him her hand. He took it, and she pulled him up and looked up at the sky. The evening air was getting a bit biting and she was honestly ready to go back inside. "Which, as romantic as it is, I've spent far too much time in this year."

"So what I'm hearing is that next year is always a possibility?" he tried, only to be met with a joking shove from her.

__________

"So if you're shite at Quidditch and you can't do potions right, what's your favorite thing?" Sirius was asking her as they walked back up to the castle slowly.

"Well, I love all sorts of things," she replied with a sigh. "I'm not really sure what I want to do with any of it, though. But come on now, what about you then?"

"Oh, I want to do something exciting," he replied, and that was all he said about it.

Winnie rolled her eyes. "That's it? Just something exciting?"

"You didn't have an answer for me, darling Winnie," he replied mischievously.

"I suppose if I had to make a choice right this moment, I would maybe write or work in a cafe or something. Teaching could also be fine, I just don't know how much I'd like that. But owning a cafe somewhere could be very cute, the more that I think about it," she explained, nodding as she said the words. "In Paris or something? How...idyllic."

"Well would you look at that, you have some aspirations after all," he said. He wasn't wearing a cocky or stupid grin, but a soft smile. He didn't take her eyes off of her.

"Well, now more from you," she encouraged, trying to hide the fact that she was blushing a bit.

"Excitement...maybe an auror or curse-breaker would be my speed. Something would have to keep my interest for long enough."

"It explains why you can never seem to stay out of trouble," she pointed out with a shrug like that much was obvious.

Sirius reached over and grabbed her hand casually, intertwining their fingers and causing her to flush a little but smile nonetheless. "I think that you secretly like the trouble," he told her with a grin and a shrug of his own. "You just like to act like you don't. I think it's why you're best friends with Louise."

"And why you're my...?" she trailed off, realizing that they have yet to have that conversation despite the fact that it was basically true and she definitely wanted it to be.

"Ooooh, Winnie, are you trying to ask me something?" Sirius asked excitedly, taking her hand and spinning her around in a circle just as they entered the castle.

Laughing, she got her bearings and agreed, "I think so, you total idiot. Will you be my boyfriend?"

He took a long time, making a big deal of acting like he was thinking really quite hard on the subject almost like it was hurting him. Winnie scoffed and playfully hit him in the shoulder, shaking her head.

"I suppose so," he finally said and Winnie's mouth hung open at his joking manner. "On one condition."

"And what's your condition?" she asked him as they finally arrived near the door to the Hufflepuff common room past the kitchens. The smell of food wafted through the air, as it did most hours of the day.

They came to a stop and Sirius grabbed her other hand and played with her fingers a bit absentmindedly.

"I think that I also need you to take me on a date," he requested, almost looking sheepish about it. She felt a little bit guilty because she had been so hesitant about the whole thing and the last thing she wanted was for him to think that she was unsure.

"I think that I might just be able to manage that," she promised, leaning in to press a slow kiss to his lips.

She pulled away and stepped away to enter the common room, but not before shooting him a wink much like one that he would give to her.