Caught in the End of Beginning

Sirius Black walked up to James Potter. He looked at James and smiled. He nodded and muttered one word: yes.

James beamed back at Sirius and hugged him.

"What changed your mind?" James asked him.

"Well," Sirius started, "I figured that if you had enough brains to choose me, I should say yes."

"No, seriously."

"I mean, I figure if I am the one you and Lily think would be good for this I should take it as an honor, and say yes. Saying no might make you two think that I don't care enough for the two of you. And that's not true; you and Lily are two of my best friends. You guys and Remus," Sirius told James. Then, he added as an after thought, "And Pete, although he's been distancing himself from us lately."

"Well, whatever your reasoning, it's fine with me. And Lily. I'll have to tell her, she'll be thrilled. Thanks again Sirius. You don't know how much this means to Lily and I. We trust you." James hugged Sirius another time.

"Well, I need to go see Luce, so I'd better get going."

"Yeah, see you."

James walked off. Sirius looked back when suddenly, a thought struck him.

"James!" he called.

"Yeah?"

"Why didn't you ask Faith?" Sirius asked, sure that James and Lily had asked her first; seeing as she was James' sister and they were rather close. Sirius figured that she had refused and told them to ask him. "Truthfully," Sirius added.

"She was our second pick. If you said no, we were going to ask her. Lily agreed with me that we should ask you first. She thought that you would be more... err... trustworthy. Lil and Faith are not exactly best friends; they don't get along. Whereas, you and Lily can be in room together with out biting each other's head off... well, in the first two hours, that is," James added.

Sirius nodded, understanding the answer. Faith would often tick Lily off. Lily had a short patience with Faith. "Thanks James, this means a lot to me."

"Anytime."

"Well, I'd better get going... Bye, and thanks again."

"Thank you. I'll see you tomorrow."

Both men walked off in opposite directions.

Sirius was approaching the building where his girlfriend, Lucy, lived with her younger sister, Emma.

He trudged up the stairs, contemplating about his recent conversation with James. And considering the amount of stairs he had to climb, he could think about that for a while. They lived on the fifth floor of all places. And Sirius didn't like the elevators. They made his stomach feel funny. Once, Lucy had told him a story about how once one had gotten stuck in between two floors on the elevator, the people were stuck there for hours. He didn't like to be in there for more that five seconds.

Sirius dug in his pocket for the key. The girls usually kept it locked even when they home. They could be so paranoid sometimes. He fished out the key and walked into the flat.

The flat was a little on the small size. The living room and the bedrooms were the biggest rooms in the place.

The kitchen was small. Very small. Little appliances lined the counters. Lucy was a half-blood, so she had some Muggle things. There was something she and Emma called a 'mic-wave' or something like that on the counter, along with various other things Sirius could not remember the names for.

The living room was a good size. Another thing that confused Sirius was the box with people in it. It was called a 'tel-o-vision'. Emma and Lucy usually called it a 'TV', though. Sirius never understood how they got people that small to live in a tiny box. And so many of them!

Emma was sitting on the couch in the living room, reading a book. She looked up, Sirius smiled at her, and she blushed.

He sat down in a chair next to her. "Where's Luce?" he asked her.

"Diagon Alley," Emma answered shortly.

"Why?" Sirius pressed on.

"She's getting some new robes with Rebecca," Emma finished. Emma did not talk much, and was very shy. She had just started speaking in full sentences to him. "She should be back soon. You can wait for her."

"Oh. Nah, I have stuff to do. Just tell her I'll be over tomorrow then, will you?" Sirius asked her.

Emma nodded.

"Well then," Sirius said getting up, looking rather uncomfortable, "I'll see you tomorrow night then?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, sure," Emma answered, acting like she was reading her book.

"Okay then, see ya."

Sirius left the flat.

Emma leaned her head back against the cold wall, and sighed. Another night with Lucy and Sirius tomorrow, maybe she could get Rebecca to allow her to stay over.