Harry Potter AU: Harry's Godmother

Christmas in Hogsmeade

"Mr. Black, may I have a word?" Professor Slughorn said. Sirius nodded, and told James and Remus he would catch up with them later. They waved goodbye before heading back to their dormitory.

"What did you want to speak about, Professor?"

"Well, as you know you all took a practice exam last week." Sirius agreed, afraid of what was coming next. Tawny had taught him loads. There was no way he hadn't passed his practice exam. "I haven't finished grading everyone's... but, I thought I would go ahead and give you yours."

Slughorn passed Sirius his results back. After unrolling it, he scanned the page immediately for the score... "Professor..."

"Looks like your lessons are paying off, Mr. Black. Ms. Lovegood seems to be an exceptional tutor." All Sirius could do wad nod; his eyes were still transfixed on the letter at the top of the parchment.

"Thank you, sir."

"I don't think I'm the one you should be thanking, Mr. Black." He rolled up the parchment immediately, and grabbed his cauldron off the desk and sprinted out the door of the dungeon.

Meanwhile, outside the Great Hall, Lily and Tawny were discussing their holiday plans. Lily, and her muggle family, were going to spend the holidays at home. Lily admitted she wasn't looking forward to it. Her sister, Petunia, rather disapproved of Lily's wizard status, and would do anything to put her down.

Tawny on the other hand, was hoping to spend time with her family. Although her younger brother, Xenophilius was in her house at Hogwarts, she hadn't been spending much time with him lately. With his O.W.L.s coming up at the end of the year, he'd been too busy studying to hang out with her. Not that Tawny had time to complain. These days, all her free time was split between hanging out with Lily, and tutoring Sirius.

"Tawny!" Their conversation paused when they heard Sirius yelling from the end of the corridor. Tawny turned to see Sirius running towards her, waving a piece of parchment in the air. The closer he got she could see the huge smile plastered on his face. Before she could ask him what he was so happy about, he had picked her up and spun her around, saying, "I swear Tawny Lovegood, you are the most wonderful person in the world!"

"What did she do?" Lily asked, clearly as confused as Tawny.

"Look!" He said, thrusting the parchment into Tawny's hands. When she unrolled it, she saw in red ink, a large 'O' in the top corner, accompanied by the praise, "Well done!"

"Outstanding! Sirius, this is fantastic!" She said, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him into a hug. There hug lasted for only a moment, but she could already feel heat rising to her cheeks.

"It's all thanks to you! I couldn't have done it without you, Tawny. Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He took a step forward, but changed his mind quickly. For a moment, there, he thought about kissing her out of excitement. Only on the cheek of course. "I'm going to go show James and Remus. They won't believe it!" Sirius said, thanking Tawny one more time before he left.

"Looks like you're going to have a lot of free time on your hands." Lily said.

"What do you mean?" Tawny asked, watching Sirius running back across the corridor. Out of excitement, every few steps he'd throw in a little skip. She couldn't help but giggle at it.

"He made an 'Outstanding'. That must mean he's not going to need your help anymore." Tawny didn't know why, but her heart sank hearing Lily's words.

"Sirius told Tawny and Lily he was on his way to tell us about his miracle of a pre-exam score. But, Sirius didn't tell us about his 'Outstanding'. Instead, when we asked, he said he made an 'Exceeds Expectations'.