"I'm not mad," Sirius says because he isn't, not now that he knows the explanation, can see the remorse written all over Kieren's face. If anything, he feels foolish for his own anger, for presuming that Kieren had done anything so thoughtless when he knows better by now.

"And I won't leave if you'd rather I stay. I had planned to spend the whole evening with you already, after all," he adds with a small smile.