A nonlinear look at the life of Sirius Black and at least one of the women who was important to him. Others included, but it's mostly those two. SB/OC. Inspired inpart by a confused Google search, and mew-tsubaki's One Step Beyond the Veil (read it, it was amazing!)

When she first arrived, there was nothing remarkable about her, except for, well, her. Then she opened her eyes and fixed him with those dark blue orbs and he was done for.

This little beauty would have powers over him that no one could understand, up until his dying days.

Sirius Black cradled the newborn baby in his arms, studying her, drinking in every detail – from the shock of dark curls on her head, to her slender fingers and toes.

He just couldn't get over it. She was finally here.

"Aquila Andromeda Black," he breathed the words and she stared up at him, as if she knew what those words signified, just who he was and how important she had become in such a short amount of time.

"It's perfect," spoke the woman beside him, sitting up in her hospital bed in St. Mungo's.

When Marlene spoke, Sirius looked up, startled he'd almost begun to believe that it was just the two of them.

"You're sure?" he asked, hoping she was.

Even though he wasn't on speaking terms with most of his relatives he had still wanted to carry on the Black family tradition of naming children after the night sky. And Andromeda was his favourite cousin, the only one he still saw, as she too had been ostracised from the family.

"Of course, I love it. She will too," he wasn't sure which 'she' Marlene was referring to, but it didn't matter. He'd gotten his wish. "Happy birthday, Sweet," she added, a little tiredly.

"The best gift I've ever received," he returned, as Marlene drifted off. "Welcome Aquila." He whispered, inhaling her new baby smell, unable to take his eyes off of her.

"Yes," she replied with great certainty.

When she agreed to marry him, he thought he could have taken flight then and there – without the assistance of a broomstick, his enchanted motorbike or any other magic. Just the pure happiness coursing through him.

Instead, he kept his feet planted firmly on the ground and swept her up in his arms, planting a kiss on her that would have been extremely inappropriate for anyone under the age of eleven to witness.

Then, together they turned to the other party guests, who had been pretending to ignore their very public argument and beamed.

"We'll need more champagne!" James declared, grinning madly.

Not only was his best friend engaged, but he himself had just gotten married earlier that day, and despite the rising threat of Lord Voldemort, nothing could have spoiled the day.

The first time he ever really said anything about her, she'd been ten, and trying to convince him to go up to bed, rather than sit in his old chair with a bottle of Firewhiskey held tight in his hand.

"She never should have done it," he muttered. "She never should have changed her mind."

Aquila hadn't said anything, she concentrated on supporting his weight the last few steps before they reached the staircase and he could lean on the banister.

"Why did I have to ask- I wish she continued to hate me…" he slurred as they made their slow way upwards. "Then she'd still be…"

He didn't finish, but she didn't need him to. Having not been given any voluntary information about her mother throughout the years, she had tuned herself to listen to the vaguest of references and knew exactly who he was talking about.

Here he changed direction in his speech. Now, it was almost as if he could see her in front of him. But he couldn't have seen anything, his eyes were far too unfocused for that, but nevertheless,

"What were you thinking?" he demanded of the empty hallway. "You knew it wasn't safe, why would you…?"

He took an unsteady step forward. "Why did you have to love me?" he asked the darkness sadly. "You weren't supposed to…" He trailed off again and stumbled on through the nearby doorway.

Aquila, too stunned to follow or make sure he had made it safely onto the bed, simply stared after him for a moment before she turned and wandered unseeing to her own bedroom.

The very next day she had demanded an explanation from Lily Potter.

She couldn't stand him. At least, that was what she said to him, her friends, anyone else who would listen. But he had seen it, tiny and rare as it was, he had seen the smile that graced her lips for a few seconds after their bantering came to an end.

He was certain the smile wasn't because she was glad to be given an excuse to escape him, but because she had enjoyed the experience.

She couldn't stand him, and yet, she seemed very flattered when she realised that he was asking her to the Halloween Ball in their third year.

"Are you serious Black? You're actually-"

"I would have thought you'd know my name by now, McKinnon." He replied with a smirk. "Yes, my request is genuine." He added as she glared at him. "I would very much like the pleasure of your company at the Halloween Ball."

"Alright then," she replied, nonchalantly. "That's fine." And with that she turned on her heel and walked away with her friends.

He saw that the tiny smile had grown, just the smallest bit.

It had always seemed a little strange to her.

Harry had a mum and a dad. They were all happy, most of the time, and when she would return home to her own, dark lonely house, things couldn't have been more different.

It was just the two of them. There was no laughter, barely any smiles.

Aunt Lily had of course, tried to make up for the sad home life, but short of permanently bringing her to live in the little cottage with the Potter family, there really wasn't that much that could be done.

She had asked once why their houses were so different, and Aunt Lily – she wouldn't dare ask her father, she knew it would upset him, even though she didn't understand why – had explained, as gently as possible, her eyes shining, that it was because a very bad man hadn't liked her mother, and he had 'gotten rid of her.'

That was the exact phrase she used, gotten rid of, later she would learn that what had actually happened, was that a dark, evil wizard had had her mother and her grandparents killed (along with so many others) while she had remained at home with her father, being fed a potion that would cure her colic.

All of this information she received from sources that weren't him. He refused to speak about her mother.

That was the strangest part and took the longest to understand, but eventually she got there.

There was so much that Aquila didn't know, much of it to do with her own history. It wasn't fair, but she had learned at a very young age that life often didn't care about fairness.

Watching the ground from the highest branch of a willow tree in his back yard, Aquila waited until she saw her almost-cousin Harry appear below her and then jumped.

Landing three feet to Harry's left, she began to laugh hysterically when he started, adjusting his glasses as they had almost fallen off his nose when she hit the ground.

"I wish you wouldn't do that." He told her, his green eyes darkening as she tried to stop her giggles.

She was at least two inches taller than Harry, and an extra year older, with long limbs and dark almost black hair. Her eyes hadn't changed from the deep blue pools she had been born with.

The same ones that looked out of the old photos, from the smiling face of the beautiful blonde in her father's arms.

When his mother called out to the two of them that Dora had arrived, they both raced off, eager to reach the Metamorphmagus first.

It was a good day, a double celebration. Her dad was only about half as jovial as the rest of them would be on a normal day, but she didn't care, because he was the only one without a drink, and that, along with his smile, was enough.

She couldn't understand why, but she wasn't going to complain.

Instead, she spent the majority of the day with Harry, firing descriptions at Dora and watching as she continually altered her appearance to suit the words they said.

When they'd arrived home that night, she'd drifted into a sleep filled with happy dreams.

The happiness, however, was short-lived.

The very next morning the owl post brought along a letter with an impressive purple wax seal, four animals surrounding the letter H on a coat of arms, and her dad seemed to dissolve into himself right there at the breakfast table.

That night was like so many before it. Aquila lay in her bed, a pillow pressed against her ears to block out the sobs coming from downstairs.

Statuesque and pale, she surveyed the platform with the dark blue pools that were her eyes. He had promised he would be here, and though she had refused to allow her hopes to rise too much, she couldn't help but scan the other faces for his, search their eyes, hoping to see the steel she knew so well.

The others were nearby - she caught flashes of copper, black and flame-red, heard snatches of their conversations as they hugged and expressed great happiness at seeing one another again after so long.

But there was still no sign of any steel, except for that in her spine as she forced herself not to fall apart as she was swept into the fold of the closest group.

"Oh, Aquilla," the woman with the copper hair beamed at her, tears glistening in her emerald eyes as they so often did. "It's wonderful to see you home again."

She didn't bother to correct the woman – they currently stood on a crowded train platform, surrounded by happy families, and home wasn't a place she really had any desire to go either.

"You'll come with us," she continued. "Everyone will be meeting back at the house we're having a little party to celebrate you're graduation." As her sentence finished she was forced to wipe her eyes as the tears finally began to slip out.

"Oh, Lils, you said you'd hold it together," the man beside her admonished. His hair was out of control, his grin lopsided as he too pulled her into a hug.

"Hi Uncle James," she muttered, allowing herself to be moved around the group.

"I just can't believe we're only going to do this one more time," Lily replied to her husband as they finally began to move, James pushing Aquila's trolley, his son, Harry, pushing his own. They were just about the last to leave the platform.

Soon, she thought. Soon I'll see him. And before she really had time to ready herself properly, they were there, having Apparated from the station to the cottage.

There was nothing remarkable about the first time he saw her. Except for her.

He was moving along the platform at Hogsmeade station with his three new friends surrounded by other kids his age, there were brunettes, a few redheads, a lot of blondes.

And there was her.

He only saw her for a second or two, but that was enough.

Remus and Peter had been just behind him and James, and the two of them collided with his back as he stood frozen, watching the space she had just vacated.

"Hmmph. What are you doing?" Remus looked at him puzzled.

Sirius smiled, put one foot forward and replied, "Nothing," as he resumed walking, the other three following his lead.

So? This happens every time, I start writing something and it comes out completley different to what my first thought was, but I still like this. I hope to revisit Aquila one day (hopefully I can keep her mother alive that time too.) But this is it for Nothing. What did you think?