Sirius led Liesel toward the castle by wand-light and was met by Mister Filch.
"Typical! Out after dark Black! I got ya this time, red-handed!"
"Merely escorting Miss Rhodes whilst she walked her dog."
"Mmhmm." The caretaker stared hard at Sirius and Sirius raised his brow.
"Well then, I tell ya what? How about you get up in the morning and take the dog out yourself? Then you can take him after lunch and then after dinner and then tomorrow night? He takes a while to do his business, so you may wish to dress warmly seeing as you aren't adept at wand usage to help keep you warm?"
"Wait till I tell the Headmaster about this!"
Sirius nodded. "You do that. And I'll be sure to inform him how you stalk innocent kids who are merely trying to help out their fellow students?"
Filch's face turned bright red.
"So, if you don't mind, I'm going to walk Miss Rhodes to the Hufflepuff common room and then I'm going to mine. There's a quidditch game tomorrow that I've got to help the team prepare for."
"Oh yeah. You went and got yourself kicked off the team didn't ya Black?"
"Yeah, no thanks to you. Excuse us, won't you?" Sirius placed his hand at the small of her back and led Liesel and Romulus to the Great Hall. "What a wanker!"
Liesel giggled quietly and nodded her head. "What happened?"
"With what?"
"How come you got kicked off the team?"
"Out after hours."
"Oh. You mean like tonight?"
He shook his head. "Nah. I told Dumbledore that I'd go with you. He seemed to think it was a good idea, seeing as you really don't know your way around the grounds much and certainly, not at night."
"And you do?"
Sirius smirked broadly.
She smiled. "So you're not going to get into trouble?"
He shook his head. "Nope."
Her smile became brighter. "Good."
"Well, we're here," he said as he eyed up the stack of barrels and removed his wand from his back pocket and tapped the appropriate barrel as Liesel looked on his shock.
"How did you know that! You're not supposed to know!"
He grinned. "Huffelpuffs throw the absolute best parties..."
She nodded. "Yeah, I heard a little bit about those," she said.
"Hey, I've got a question for ya," he said.
"What's that?"
"You knew who I was when you ran into me yesterday, didn't you?"
She grinned.
"YOU DID! ADMIT IT!"
"Not at first, until the girls nodded at you. Then I knew."
"Ah." He nodded.
"But I had already read your dossier."
Shock played all over his features. "WHAT!"
"But to your credit, yours and your Uncle, I'm sorry for your loss, by the way. Remus and Lily told me..."
Still in shock, he looked anywhere but at her. "Thank you," he said quietly.
"There's a female cousin," she said as she closed her eyes. "Damn, I can't remember her name!"
"Andromeda?"
Her face brightened. "Yeah!"
"What about us," he asked.
"Yours were the best three out of all the ones I got to look over. I kinda snuck in my dad's office."
"Did you now," Sirius asked, smirking.
"Yeah, I'm kinda nosy and I wanted to see what had his attention so intently, you know?"
He nodded. "So what did they say?"
"Basically that you three weren't a threat."
He nodded again. "I'd think that I'd be the one they'd be looking at out of the three of us, but not for a job," he said, half-laughing, eternally thankful that his brother wasn't on their radar.
She looked intently at a stray thread from a button on his flannel shirt. "I think you'd be an amazing auror."
He moved closer. "Yeah?"
She nodded her head, feeling his warm breath on her still cold cheeks. "I'd better go in. Especially if what's his face is still out there."
"Oh, he don't worry me none."
"Well still, I don't want you to get into any trouble just because he gave you a shit-load of grief. You know? See, I also read that you're quick to fire."
"Maybe just a bit." He smiled and nodded and moved in to kiss her, but Romulus tugged on the leash, pulling her away with a jerking movement and she rolled her eyes as he laughed.
"What's got your attention, Rom?" She looked between the barrels to find two little beady eyes staring back at her and she yelped and backed into Sirius, nearly knocking him over. He wound his arms around her and rested his chin on her shoulder as he peered into the crevice. Then he moved her behind him and cast lumos toward the barrels and saw what she did. He quickly nox'd his wand as he held out his left hand out and watched as a chubby, unkempt looking rat scampered onto his palm then he grinned. Romulus looked to the side and crept over to the other side of the barrels and sat on his haunches and stared at the wall. Liesel followed him and saw nothing out of the ordinary.
"Well, well!" He held the rat up to his face. "Mister Wormtail! What brings you here!"
The rat wiggled as he screeched and chirped and Sirius shook his head and then placed him on the floor. Liesel stared as the rat he called Wormtail, transformed into Peter Pettigrew.
"Good news, Sirius! The best, in fact!"
Sirius saw movement out of the corner of his eye in the direction of Liesel and Romulus.
"What's going on, Pete?" He saw James' body become visible as he withdrew the cloak.
"I'll let James tell you," he said with the biggest smile on his face.
"You'll never guess in a million years Padfoot!"
Sirius nodded. "You're probably right James. I don't want to live that long! How about you just tell me?" He raised his brow, slightly irate that their privacy had been invaded once again.
"You've been reinstated!"
Sirius cocked his head. "Sorry?"
James grabbed him by his shoulders. "YOU'RE BACK ON THE TEAM!"
"WHAT!"
"Yeah! Remus did some of his smooth talking and you're back on the team! We're a shoe in to win the cup this year!"
Sirius stood still for a moment, then cut his eyes and nodded his head, then laughed. "Good one, James! You almost had me there for a minute!" He turned to face Liesel and held out his hand toward her.
James' face fell and he shook his head. "I'm not joking," he said quietly and gently grabbed Sirius elbow, causing Sirius to look at his hand and then up into his eyes with a raised brow once again. "Remus has been writing all summer trying to get you back on. Even got Lily in on it."
Sirius shook his head. "Not going for it mate, sorry."
Liesel threaded her arm around Sirius'. "I dunno, Sirius. My uncle showed me how to tell if someone is telling the truth or not. It's all a matter of body language and the eyes. I don't think he's lying,"
"See? Even she knows I'm not lying!"
Sirius heaved a heavy sigh and shook his head. "James, I'm not prepared to play...I've been up all day and I've not practiced..."
"In four days time...FOUR DAYS Sirius! That's when we last practiced, you and me! You're golden! Well, not quite top form yet, but you will be in two weeks time if we do it right!"
Sirius sighed again and looked into Liesel's eyes. "Sorry darlin, I hate to tell you, but your team is gonna lose tomorrow."
Liesel smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I kind of figured. Professor M is gonna be a happy woman though!"
Sirius grinned. "Oh hell yeah, I dare say that she will be!"
"So as your team Captain, it's my responsibility to make sure you get your rest, so say good night like a good little pup and lets get a move on!"
Sirius nodded and his grin widened. "Fine. You two take a hike, will ya? We'd like a bit of privacy if you please?"
"Privacy? Oh yeah! By all means! Yes, go on! Do your thing!"
Sirius tilted his head and raised his brow as he cleared his throat when the smiling boys didn't move.
"Okay, okay! We're going! Come on, Wormy!"
Sirius shook his head as he rolled his eyes, then took Liesel's hand in his and led her back toward the entrance and looked over his shoulder and laughed. "I don't know why I'm bothering to look," he said. They could be ten feet away and I wouldn't know it, but I don't smell James' cologne anymore." He looked down at the dog who was looking toward the entrance and he shrugged his shoulders. "The whistle blows promptly at ten AM sharp. I'll try to find you in the Hufflepuff stands before the match begins. Alright?"
She shook her head. "Don't bother. I won't be there."
His face fell. "Oh."
She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed his barely stubbled cheek, which she found irresistible. "Nite! Get some rest so you can play a good game tomorrow!"