Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling
Hey, long time no see. This is the final chapter in this story, I hope you like it. It is dedicated to my lovely Beta ThatRandomMooshroom who helped me write this.
'Sirius was a tall, well built, darkly handsome man with fair skin, long, lustrous black hair, striking grey eyes, and an air of "casual elegance."' – Potter Wiki
Fear and survival. They are the only two things that Sirius Black has swimming through his mind as he runs for his life deep into the heart of the forest. Sprinting as fast as he can, he doesn't stop as a flash of green races past his eyes. He can't stop… Otherwise they will catch him.
Panting, Sirius dives to dodge another one of the flashes, this time scarlet red. 'Where's James and Remus?' the animagus asks himself, panic seeping its way into his bones. 'What if they've been captured?' Sirius dreads the thought.
Back up on his feet, he moves North West in order to hide from his enemy. Though, as time ticks on, Sirius feels his energy gradually ebbing away into the abyss and a place to hide is something he crucially needs to find. Sweat begins to build up on the base of his neck.
It takes him two minutes of running until he finds a suitable hiding spot, a large tree trunk with a hollow base. The attackers will be able to spot him at some point, but by then the raven head will have the upper hand. His weapon may be useless but he still has strength on his side, and the element of surprise.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Three minutes.
Four minutes.
The minutes go past without even a bird's chirp, total silence, not until Sirius hears the distinct sound of a twig breaking. Acceleration of the heart happens on cue, as Sirius attempts to wait patiently until he can make his move.
The steps get closer and closer, every moment giving Sirius more anxiety as to what will happen. The sounds suddenly stop and he knew they were close… so close he can literally smell the sweet fragrance of their perfume…
All of a sudden, pain courses through his body, screaming he falls forward so his top half is out of his hiding spot.
A female laugh erupts from the silence. Gliding over she bends to kneel in front of her victim causing Sirius to gulp.
"Sirius, Sirius, Sirius," the woman tuts from behind her helmet, obviously disappointed with his failure. Taking off her helmet, golden locks began to pool around her waist and Sirius' piercing grey eyes lock with her sapphire blue ones.
Another moment of silence, then she bursts out laughing once again causing Sirius to roll his eyes.
"You're such an eejit," she giggles with her Irish lilt and Sirius can't help but smile at her.
"I am not," he defends himself weakly, knowing full well that he is never going to live this down.
"You are Hun, that tree trunk is so hollow I could see your feet from under the ridges." Once again Sirius rolls his eyes as she continues to giggle.
"Still, even with that. Is there a reason you shot me on the bloody arse, Marlene?" the animagus asks, rubbing his sore backside.
Marlene hugs the paintball gun close to her chest, "Of course there is, it's punishment for choosing such a crappy hiding spot."
Grumbling under his breath, Sirius attempts to stand up using his empty paintball gun as a crutch. "Who's winning?"
Marlene snorts, "the girls obviously. The boys have been totally annihilated." She runs up next to him as he begins to hobble back to base. Grabbing his waist she pulls him closer to her body.
To this, Sirius raises a sleek eyebrow, his signature smirk also making an appearance (he had taken off his helmet earlier in the game.)
"Is there something I can interest you in Miss McKinnon?"
"Perhaps," the blonde smirks, leaning in for a kiss, which Sirius dodges.
Sirius put on a thoughtful look, "I'm not sure if you deserve it."
Now it is Marlene's turn to raise an eyebrow.
"After all, you did just shoot me in my right arse cheek. What if you missed and hit my, you know," Sirius blushes in embarrassment.
It still amazes Sirius how Marlene manages to make him this way. Before going out with her, he showed no compassion to any girl. No lady makes him blush, no lady makes him genuinely smile, no lady has ever been able to make Sirius happy. Not until he began to go out with Marlene McKinnon in sixth year. She knows all his deepest darkest secrets, including the memories about his abusive parents. Apart from the marauders he has never told anyone about his parents, this alone shows how much he trusts her… how much he loves her.
"You know I wouldn't allow that to happen," she smiles lovingly and leans forward again for a kiss, which Sirius now allows, giving her a sweet but loving peck on the lips.
"Let's get back to base, the others are already there." Marlene says lightly.
Sirius nods his head and they both return to base, laughing at the stories of what they did throughout the paintball match.
Upon arriving they are welcomed by everyone raising their glasses of butter beer or fire whiskey up as a form of greeting. Though they were at a muggle site, they were allowed to bring their own beverages without being questioned, they didn't think twice about bringing wizarding alcohol over muggle alcohol.
Sirius takes a moment to look at everyone, failing to conceal his laughter. Together there are ten which came today: James, Remus, Peter, Lily, Marlene, Dorcas Meadowes, Mary MacDonald, Fabian and Gideon Prewett and himself. Boys vs girls with Fabian joining the girl's team, Sirius thought surely the boys would win. Well, when Marlene said annihilated before, that was a massive understatement.
The boys have been destroyed.
All the boys apart from Fabian are covered head to toe in various colours of paint. Not even a patch is untainted.
To top it off and to rub it in the boy's faces, Fabian put the boy's flag around his neck as a cape and ran around the whole of the base whilst saying "I bet you wish you joined the girl's team now, you mangy cowards."
The girls and Fabian too have some paintball marks, but not even half as much as the boys did.
"Damn, I did not think it was going to be this bad" Sirius whistles at the damage causing the rest of his team to groan.
"Sirius, whose idea was this again?" Remus groans in pain, whilst having his shoulders rubbed by Lily.
James looks over at his fiancé and friend and sighs, "you girls should have gone easy on Moony here. You know his time of the month is soon."
At that moment the next team who were about to play passed them, all women and from the looks of it, a hen party. Overhearing what James has just said they all send Remus an odd look, whose mouth is open gobsmacked. He threw a bread roll at the spectacled boy, hitting the other straight on the forehead.
"You bloody idiot, they now think I'm some rogue with some sort of man period every month," the werewolf blushes, causing the others to laugh out loud. Since joining the order of the Phoenix a month ago all the wizards and witches there know about his lycanthropy, and all accepted him with open arms.
Sirius grabs a butter beer for both himself and Marlene, sitting on top of the wooden table instead of the chairs which have been provided.
"Despite losing, I think my aim was amazing throughout that game," James boasts with a huge goofy grin on his face.
"James, you aimed for me and shot Lily, who was three feet away from me" Fabian raised his brow at the raven haired male.
"How do you know I wasn't aiming for her?"
"Because as soon as you hit Lily, you came rushing over to her apologizing and saying 'that wasn't meant for you'."
James opens his mouth in an attempt to make a comeback, but finds he can't. Sirius smirks, "you are a goon sometimes Prongs, especially when it comes to Lily."
"Was your aim any better?"
"Actually my aim was immaculate." Sirius grins and takes Marlene's gun from her shoulder, "allow me to demonstrate."
Raising the gun to his shoulder, Sirius looks at his target with unwavering eyes. The practice post has a bunch of letters placed on springs, so that after you hit it the letter will go straight back up. In order to get a bit of testing with the gun, the people running this place make you try and spell out your name by hitting the letters.
"Marlene will you do the honour of writing out the letters," Sirius asks his beautiful girlfriend, who rolls her eyes.
"Sure thing, why not."
As Sirius lines his gun up with the S, getting ready to pull the trigger an idea pops into his head. Biting his lip nervously, he moves his aim to the M. He takes the shot and hits it square in the middle.
James bursts out into laughter as Marlene writes down the letter M.
"You know you're meant to be spelling out your name Sirius" Peter snorts, tears of mirth rolling down his face.
Sirius takes no notice of what they say and aims for the A. Shoots. Bullseye. And then the R.
It is so silent now, that Sirius can hear the pin drop. The only sound present is the scraping of chalk on the board.
Now that the R is back in its original position he shoots at it again and doesn't even hesitate going to the Y.
The group, finally realizing what he is doing, begins to cheer,
"Yes Sirius!" the animagus can hear James shout in the distance.
Sirius quickly finishes the question by shooting the M and the E.
Releasing the gun onto the floor, he nervously looks round at Marlene, scared to see what her reaction is. Thankfully, she is still there and has a wide beaming smile on her face, dimples forming at her cheeks.
Slowly she walks up to him, and kisses him lovingly on the lips. The crowd wolf whistles behind them.
Once they separate, though their foreheads still lingered together, Sirius asks confidently,
"I'm guessing that's a yes?"
Leaning back, Marlene shakes her head and the group immediately ceases applauding… What?
A blush rises to Sirius' face, looking towards the ground. His heart actually feels like it's currently splitting in two.
"You don't want to marry me?"
"No, I don't" Marlene confirms with a small smile.
The onlookers watch, gobsmacked.
Sirius coughs awkwardly, trying to conceal the pain in his voice,
"You don't want to be with me." Marlene's smile grew,
"I never said that." He raises his eyes and they immediately lock with Marlene's, a bubble of hope and confusion bursts inside of him.
"What?"
"We don't need to get married Sirius," Marlene explains. "We are good the way we are, I love you and you love me. That's all we need. I don't think I need a ring on my finger to prove that."
A happy smile begins to emerge onto Sirius' face.
"Sirius Black, I will never stop loving you. Even in the afterlife, I will wait on the other side for you or you better bloody wait for me." She laughs making Sirius join her.
"Of course I will," Sirius smirks and then looks at the group, who seem as though they are still trying to figure out what is actually happening. "I think this is a cause for celebration. The non-engagement of Sirius Black and Marlene McKinnon, but the true love" Sirius barks with laughter and everyone immediately cheers again.
Love is a crazy thing; it makes people who they are. Some people have a cheesy love, whereas some people have a simplistic love. For Sirius, he will never know what he calls his love for Marlene McKinnon. All he does know is that it is unconditional. He will love her forever, and though the words will never be said in context, Sirius will love her till death do they part… Unfortunately for Sirius, this statement becomes true a whole lot sooner than he ever expected…
It isn't until years later that they find out they have still been true to their word… Sirius has never been in love with another person other than Marlene… and when he fell through the veil the first thing he could see was Marlene's outstretched hand.
"I told you I would wait."
'"She was killed two weeks after this was taken"' – Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film), when Sirius shows Harry the picture of the original order of the Phoenix
1) How did you like it?
2) There will be a sequel to this sometime this year or the next called A Wedding to Remember... So Yeah please put me on your alerts list if you're interested. This will be a four part series, but the third and fourth instalments are not for a while yet.
3) Please Review :)