The Seriousness of Sirius Potter

When Henry and Jonathan told Sirius that the N.E.W.T.'s were hard, they hadn't been joking. Sixteen year old Sirius Potter sat in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom trying to stay awake. Since his father, Harry Potter took over as the teacher two years ago the lessons had become as legendary as the professor himself. Sirius usually enjoyed his lessons with his father, but today they were going through the written part of the N.E.W.T. exam. The whole class was having trouble staying awake. Sensing this, Harry employed an attention gaining tactic he had learned from one of his old teachers.

"So when you are looking over the questions, always remember the most important thing, throughout the whole exam in fact, is CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" The whole class snapped out of their stupor. The boy sitting next to Sirius, Michael Wood, had been resting his head on his hand and had also been half asleep. As Professor Potter shouted, his hand slipped and touched Sirius', only for a moment.

"Sorry mate," apologised Michael as he withdrew his hand. Michael's touch left a tingling sensation in Sirius' hand. He quickly went back to his notes, unsure of what to feel.

~|~

As Sirius sat reading on the sofa in the Gryffindor common room, charms and jinxes couldn't occupy his attention for love nor money. The only thing swimming around in his head was the lesson earlier that afternoon. What were these feelings he had? Were they natural or magical? He had felt some kind of magic when Michael briefly touched his hand.

"Speak of the devil," thought Sirius. Michael emerged from the stairway in a T-shirt and boxers. "He really is quite good looking," Sirius thought, then slapped himself mentally. "Come on, you don't have those kinds of thoughts about your best mate, you just don't."

"It's one o'clock in the morning, Sirius. I think you've been reading long enough," Michael's voice brought Sirius' inner argument to a halt. He set his glasses down and rubbed his eyes.

"I didn't realise. I've been trying so hard to catch up on Charms lately and ..."

"Yeah, I know mate." Michael put a hand on Sirius' shoulder. To anyone watching it would have looked like a simple, friendly pat on the shoulder, but Sirius could definitely feel Michael squeeze gently. Michael turned to head back for the dormitory when he suddenly stopped. He turned again to face his friend.

"Sirius, during Defence Against the Dark Arts today, when I touched your hand, did you ...did you ...did you like, feel anything?"

"Other than your hand?" The two boys smiled nervously.

"Well there's that, but I mean something ... something more?" Sirius' initial reaction was to protest and deny any such thing. He had been called gay a number of times but that was because of his sensitivity and lack of 'manly' behaviour. It was also because most of the people who called him gay were arrogant, potato brained prats. He had been asked very directly if he was gay and every time he had denied it. Again this was because the people who asked him were pathetically trying to upset him. Now, however, he wasn't being asked if he was gay or not, he was being asked how he felt.

"Yes," he said sincerely, "something I've never felt before."

"Me too," said Michael softly. He moved closer to the sofa. Sirius moved his books to the floor and looked up into Michael's eyes. They were calling to him, they wanted him.

"So what do we do?" he asked. Michael smiled as he pulled his T-shirt over his head and allowed it to drop to the floor. Sirius had seen Michael change in the Quidditch changing room, but on those occasions he had looked away. It was the polite thing to do, after all. Now Michael stood before him, allowing and wanting Sirius to see him. His biceps and firm stomach excited Sirius more than he ever thought possible. Michael sat beside Sirius on the sofa and placed a hand on the other boy's knee.

"We just go with it." The two of them moved forward slowly until they met in a tender, gentle kiss, their first but certainly not their last. Sirius' books sat on the floor forgotten completely.