On Fri I had lunch with Betram, who had a free point afterwards which we decided to spend together before I went upstairs to get set into homework before the weekend started in earnest.

“ We don’t do this nearly often enough, ” he murmured into my ear as we settled ourselves in a nifty little alcove he’d discovered behind one of the staircase on the initiatory trading floor.

“ Don’t peach about that now, ” I said. “ Just make the most of the fact we’re together. ”

He grinned at me. “ I like the audio of that. ” I smiled back and pulled him in closer.

He was right, we didn’t catch up nearly often adequate and so I tried to make the most of it when we did. Within reason, of course of study & ndash ; I was still wary of heading back into the Hufflepuff coarse room or, worse, his student residence, and therefore preferred to stay in places just a little more public. The seductive part of it was, of course, the fact that when we were making out it meant that we weren’t talking and that meant in turn that I was less likely to grizzle over what was wrong with our human relationship, instead focusing on what made it good. And lazy hours like this one certainly helped me do that.

Of course it was over a great deal too soon and it seemed like no time had passed when we had to call a stopover to it. “ Bloody school, ” Bertram grumbled as he put his arms around me again. “ We have to do this again. Soon. ”

I smiled as I reached up and kissed him. “ Sounds good to me. ”

We stayed for as long as we could but unfortunately we eventually did have to part, or at to the lowest degree we did if Bertram wanted to pass good luck charm, so at long last he grabbed his school bag and headed off to that class and I went in the opposite steering and started making my way up to Gryffindor Tower.

The quickest route from Bertram’s little alcove took me past the subroutine library, and as I walked past its entrance the doorway suddenly opened and I was bowled over by Sirius, who was looking a little fraught as he barrelled along at a rate of knots. The hit was pretty forceful and we both ended up rather awkwardly on the base.

“ Oh, Laura, sorry, I didn’t mean value to run into you like that, ” he said apologetically as we picked ourselves up and I gathered my scattered leger back into my bag. “ I was just trying to escape … ” His voice trailed off.

acquiring back to my feet, I looked at him in confusion. “ Escape ? What from ? ”

He looked a little uncomfortable. “ More like who from, ” he muttered, and I looked up to see Elvira Vablatsky and Greta Catchlove standing at the open the library door, noticing him talking to me and throwing end aspect in my direction.

Sothis followed me around the nigh corner where I waited while he got himself sorted out, putting two or three depository library Holy Writ into his bag. I grinned at him. “ What, you don’t want to spend your afternoon with Elvira and her admirer ? Whyever not ? ”

He raised an incredulous eyebrow. “ Do I have to suffice that ? ”

“ Of course of instruction not, ” I said, “ but I thought it might give you an opportunity to vent your spleen a petty. You look rather like you want to. ”

He laughed. “ Yes, fairish enough, it can get a bit irritating. And all I wanted was to go in, seize a couple of Christian Bible for that Herbology assignment, and get out again. And it ended up taking me & ndash ; ” he looked at his watch & ndash ; “ three quartern an hour ? ” Looking shocked it had been that long, he shook his head in frustration.

I looked back in the direction of the library, but Elvira and Greta had obviously decided not to follow him. Maybe that three twenty-five percent of an hour had been enough for them. “ What were they doing this time ? ”

“ Inviting me to Hogsmeade, believe it or not, ” he said, making a aspect. “ We don’t even have sex when the next sojourn will be, but they thought they’d get in early. And they had an answer for everything I said, too & ndash ; I think they must have planned it or something. ”

“ Well, at least they weren’t trying to force feed you some amortentia or anything, ” I pointed out, trying not to express joy at his verbalism of uncomfortableness and & ndash ; was that embarrassment ? Dog Star Black, embarrassed by female attending ? I mean, I knew he found Elvira and the fan club annoying, but it had never occurred to me that their behavior might embarrass him. I swallowed my surprise. “ Did you want party back to the tower, just in causa ? ”

He looked at me gratefully. “ That’d be great, thanks, ” he said, and we headed in the direction of the near staircase. “ So, ” he went on, “ any brilliant melodic theme ? What can I do about them ? Pr- James and I haven’t total up with anything that’s worked yet. ”

I giggled. “ Drench them in dragon dung. It’d do it for me. ”

He looked sideways at me. “ Or Bubotuber pus ? ”

I shrugged, struggling to contain a smiling. “ Hey, why not ? It’s worked once, it would probably work again. ”

“ Ah, but you need access to the Bubotubers, ” he pointed out, “ and to be honest I’d rather not go any of them into the greenhouses. They’d probably get ideas. ”

“ Yeah, you’ve got a point, ” I conceded. “ All right, how about one of Hagrid’s Nifflers ? ”

He shook his headspring, though he’d started to express joy. “ Not enough jewellery, ” he pointed out when he could get a Scripture out. “ Now someone like Mulciber, on the other script... ”

I giggled again, remembering what the Nifflers had done to him during Care of Magical wight in fifth year. “ Oh, that medallion, ” I said with exaggerated exasperation. “ Someone really needs to assure him that you can’t get away with that unless you’ve got at least some tomentum on your chest. ”

“ What, the smooth-as-a-baby’s-bum look doesn’t appeal to you ? ” he asked with a grin.

“ Not really, ” I admitted, for some reason feeling a little discomfited to be discussing my personal preferences in this form of thing with someone like Sirius. I decided to alter the content. “ But that’s not really the point. If a boy wants to unbutton his shirt half way and fatigue a medal he should at least have something to present, don’t you think ? ”

It worked & ndash ; my change of study went without gossip. In fact, Sirius was still laughing and I found it rather hard not to join in : it really was quite infectious and something about him just seemed to set me off. “ He may opt the hairless look, ” he said eventually. “ You never know, he might have Charmed it all off. Why he’d want to, I have no melodic theme, but … ”

“ You know, you could be on to something there, ” I said through my giggles. “ And does anyone else recall it’s weird that a boy wears more jewellery than any of the girls in the school ? Or do you think he’s trying to separate us something ? ”

“ Definitely trying to distinguish us something, ” Sirius agreed. “ Too bad Pritchard is so midst, otherwise she might hold figured it out by now. ”

“ Either that or she thinks she’s got it made because he never tries anything, ” I said dryly. Sirius stopped laughing for a second and looked sharply at me, but before I could work out his expression he’d looked away again, so I went on with my train of thought. “ Or do you think that it’s because of her that he’s leaning that way in the first shoes ? ”

“ Now that I like, ” he said, chuckling again. “ Scylla Pritchard is so appalling that she’s turned him gay. I almost feel like spreading that as a rumour to see how farsighted it takes to catch hold. ”

“ If you start it, ” I said, “ about five minutes. If someone else starts it, it could withdraw a little while longer, maybe up to two or three Clarence Day depending on how true the seed is. ”

“ So if you started it ? ” he asked, his oculus sparkling.

I shrugged. “ I’ve never started a rumour before & ndash ; that I know of & ndash ; so I’ve got no idea. Considering no one ever listens to me, though, I’m leaning towards about a week. ”

“ Now that’s got to be an hyperbole, ” he said with a grinning. “ I would make put it more about the two-week mark. ”

He was still smiling and I wondered what he would do if I succumbed to the sudden urge to grab a book out of my bag and hurl it at him. The leaden the in force, of track. But I didn’t know him quite well enough to get away with something like that, so I settled for glaring at him. “ Gee, thanks for that, ” I said sarcastically. “ It’s so nice to know how a good deal I’m looked up to. ”

He suddenly looked mortified. “ You didn’t take me seriously, did you ? ”

I grinned. “ Sirius lightlessness, how lots of anything you say should be taken seriously ? ” His brass visibly relaxed. “ If I took that sorting of thing seriously, ” I went on, “ I’d have such an lower status complex that I’d never pass on my dormitory. ” I grinned as we reached the Fat madam and Dog Star, looking rather relieved, gave the password so we could go inside. “ well, it looks like you made it intact, ” I said, having a ready looking around the mutual room. “ Not a groupie to be seen. Now do you think you can get up to your dorm without being molested, or would you like a chaperone up the stairs as well ? ”

He raised his supercilium. “ And you say you’ve never started a rumour ? What do you think that would do ? ”

“ commodity point, ” I conceded. “ Though to be fair, if anyone actually believed that I’d be worried. Let’s face it, it’s no more believable now than it was when that narration went around last Christmas. ” I mean, really, Sirius black, Hogwarts pin-up, with someone as uninteresting as me ? Yeah, right, like that would ever hap. In any case I was somewhat take over that I didn’t need to accompany him up to the dorm and wasn’t even sure why I’d said it in the foremost blank space, preferring instead to join the former little girl at the mesa by the window to try to get a starting time on my Defence homework from that morning. “ At least it looks like you’ll be able to start that essay in peace and restrained, ” I went on. “ Have fun ! ” And I waved cheerfully as I crossed the common room and set myself up adjacent to Lily and Blessed Virgin, only vaguely aware that he just stood there for a spell looking paying attention before disappearing up the male child’stair.

****

Sat morning found me pulling affair out of my trunk and emptying my bedside cabinet in a vain effort to settle my Charms textbook. We had an assignment due on Thursday and unfortunately the leger was required, so wherever it had ended up net time I threw it in the direction of my trunk, I had to find it.

Madonna noticed my excitement. “ Wha’are ye lookin’fer ? ”

“ I can’t find my transcript of quintessence, ” I told her. “ It’s here somewhere but I have no musical theme where. ”

Charlotte giggled from the other English of the room. “ Have you tried a Summoning Charm ? ”

I sat down and pulled out my wand, rather embarrassed that something that simple had evaded my thought cognitive operation. “ Accio quintessence ! ”

I waited for the script to dislodge itself from its hiding spot and soar up into my helping hand. And waited. And waited.

After a second or so Charlotte laughed again. “ okay, looks like it’s not in here at all, ” she admitted. “ Any estimation where else you could have left it ? ”

I shook my promontory. “ That’s just it, I have no estimate where else it could be. It has to be here somewhere. ”

Mary grinned. “ Anyone woul’think ye’re nae adept a’Summoning Charms. If it’s here, it woul’hae fall t’ye. Here, ” she went on, pulling her copy of the book out of her trunk, “ use mine, ye can give it back when ye’re done. ”

I smiled at her gratefully. “ Thanks Mary. I’ll have it back to you in no time. ”

And I meant to, I really did. bother was, it was soon Wednesday and I still had the record book, and if she was going to use it for her own essay I would need to get it back to her soon. So with this in mind I went to meet her after my exempt full point ( in which I’d put some finishing touches on the paper concerned and done some more employment on the Herbology assignment also due the next day ) and her Muggle Studies social class. However, my well intent were stymied by Dione Turpin, of all people.

Not that Dione was actually there in person, it was more the effects of her natural process. I headed to the second floor, where the schoolroom was, only to be greeted before I could even see her by The Virgin’s very characteristic laugh. ( I swear, even that had a Scottish accent. ) Rounding the box, I saw her standing outside the classroom with James II and Sirius, both of whom were looking a little concerned.

“ Laura’ll plunk for me up, ” said Mary as she saw me, failing to inhibit a giggle. “ Wha’dae ye say t’this, Laura, Saint James the Apostle has heard tha’Lily only got i’Slughorn’s goo’books by offerin’him favours, if ye know wha’I mean. ”

Reaching them, I laughed too. “ That is a good one, ” I agreed. “ How bad would her predilection have to be for that to be true ? ” I giggled with Mary and then caught James’brass. He looked worried sick. Catching myself, I said to him, “ Don’t secernate me you believed it ? ”

He seemed to take some solace from the fact that both Mary and I thought the very melodic theme was ridiculous. “ You’re sure enough it’s not true, then ? ”

I shook my head and grinned at Mary. “ Sounds like a Turpin tarradiddle to me. ”

The Virgin nodded. “ Aye, one o’her grazing land’believable, too. ”

I giggled. “ Absolutely. I’d say the Toadstool narration had more truth to them. Or the ones Beedle the Bard wrote. Honestly, if Lily had been half as busy as those stories have made out over the year, she’d never own had time for anything else. And let’s face it, she’s been in Slughorn’s unspoilt books since first year, so she’d have to have got started pretty young. ”

“ What’s a Turpin tale ? ” Canicula looked confused as we started to make our way downstairs for lunch.

“ Rumour spread by Dione Turpin, ” I explained. “ You know the type. ”

He shook his psyche. “ No, I don’t, ” he said, plainly baffled. “ Is she known for this sort of affair ? ”

I laughed as I realised just how full Dione was at hiding her honest nature from some masses, and Virgin Mary clearly had the same reaction. “ Tha’s richt, ye’re male, ” she said. “ She’d ne’er let anythin’cutting in fron’o’ye. But aye, she’s bin sayin’stuff lik’tha’since a’to the lowest degree secon’year. ”

I smiled broadly at the incredulous faces of both male child and continued the explanation. “ You remember that rumour that Lily had been plagiarising stuff from the depository library for her assignments and not writing them herself ? That was a Turpin Tale. So was the one saying Charlotte was having it off with professor Mopsus. Which is pretty similar to the electric current write up, you might notice. ”

James looked aghast. “ But why would she say things like that ? ”

“ Jealous, we suspect, ” I said with a shrug. “ She only picks on the great unwashed she feels substandard to or threatened by so of course Lily, who’s pretty a lot perfective, is her prime prey. But she’s also had a go at Charlotte, obviously, and Martha, and Clio, and Elvira, and Veronica, and even Greta Catchlove because she’s so good at Charms. ”

“ She is almost perfect, isn’t she, ” said James quietly as if to himself, a languorous feeling coming to his case as he obviously thought about Lily. He snapped out of it at a growled “ Prongs ! ” from Sirius and went on. “ But still, Turpin shouldn’t be saying stuff like that. If the great unwashed start believing it she could do a lot of damage. ”

Mary shrugged. “ Only if, as ye said, folks asterisk’believin’it an’all. An’nae much has stuck so far, so she’s nae bin doin’tha’goo’a job. ”

Canicula was frowning, and I remembered too later that he’d gone out with Dione the old year. Oops, I thought, maybe I should try to be more sensitive before I spout off about citizenry. He interrupted my slightly shamefaced reverie.

“ Has she ever said anything about you ? ”

I looked at Mary and giggled a little. “ Us ? good, no. We’re not anywhere near blazing enough. ”

James looked puzzled. “ Conspicuous ? ”

Madonna laughed again. “ Ye know, nae one notices us. We fade int’th’backgroond, especially when individual lik’Lily or Martha is aroond. So we’re almos’immune t’things lik’Turpin Tales’have Dione hasna any reason t’palpate subscript t’us. ”

Canicula frowned again. “ But that’s not right, you’re just as good as they are. ” He sounded eerily like Remus had a year or so earlier.

“ But we can’t compete with them, ” I said placatingly. “ Mary’s right. If Lily or Martha or Charlotte is in the room, who pays any attending to us ? And don’t say it’s not like that, ” I went on, cutting off an interruption I could see coming, “ because you know it is. And we don’t psyche, either, so don’t apologise. It’s just the way things are. And there’s time that it’s nice, being close to invisible. ”

Sirius looked like he wanted to say something, while King James I was shaking his fountainhead. “ And to recollect you went out with her, Padfoot, ” he muttered. “ We had no idea. ”

I laughed. “ Don’t worry about it, she’s a dab hand at hiding it. You two aren’t the only ones she’s hoodwinked. Anyway, how was Muggle written report ? ”

Sirius groaned dramatically and shook his question. “ I never thought it could happen, ” he said, “ but Penrose has finally done the impossible. ”

“ And that is ? ” I asked.

“ He’s managed to shit a subject even more boring than History of conjuration, ” Sirius explained, and Mary groaned as well and nodded vigorously.

“ Not potential, surely, ” I protested. “ cypher could be more boring than chronicle of Magic. ”

“ I would have thought so too, ” said James, “ but Padfoot’s got a point. He got us started on Muggle economic systems. up-to-dateness trading and the gold standard and & ndash ; what was that other one ? ”

“ Controlled versus market economy, ” Sirius said with an exaggerated shudder. “ And something else that even I can’t remember, that’s how enthralling it was. ”

“ And that really uncanny affair where different body politic have different money, ” said King James I, shaking his head. “ That’s just bizarre. How hard would that pretend it to travel ? ”

“ Because that’s something you do every weekend, is it, James II ? ” I said wryly. “ Quick jaunt over to the continent or across the pond to America. ”

Sirius chuckled at this patch James grinned. “ Well, maybe not, but Mum and Dad do like to demand me away every summer holidays. But we stay in the wizarding areas as a rule, and of course they’ve all got the same currency. Imagine having to go into Gringott’s and change money every prison term you get into a new country, it’d be a nightmare ! ”

“ Aye, it’s bad enough havin’t’alteration t’poonds an’all when we go int’Muggle British capital, ” Mary agreed.

“ Well, if it’s any consolation, ” I said, “ even Muggles find that sort of thing boring. And they live with it every day. ”

We had reached the Great Hall and Mary, Saint James and Sirius automatically headed to the right to where the Gryffindor table was. I stayed in the center of the hall, my optic searching the adjacent Hufflepuff tabular array for Bertram, who I had arranged to sit with. “ See you later on ! ”

Dog Star, who was last in the line, whirled around. “ You’re not eating ? ”

I grinned. “ Of line I am. I’m just with the Hufflepuffs today. ” And I waved cheerfully as I made my way to where Bertram was waiting for me.

He beamed at me and budged up a little so I could fit in the spotlight he had saved for me. “ Get your essay finished ? ”

“ Almost, ” I said, giving him a quick buss on the impudence before grabbing a plate and heaping it with beef casserole and mashed potatoes. “ But I’ve got another detached full point after Ancient rune so I should get it done then. ” The next day, Th, was full-on, with stunt man Transfiguration, then Charms, then double Herbology, so I liked to get sure I had well-nigh of my preparation for it done before Wed night so I wasn’t in too much of a panic.

“ Pleased to get wind it, ” he said, pouring me a pumpkin vine succus. “ Does that think of you’re free tonight ? ”

I grinned. “ I might just be, ” I said. “ What did you have in idea ? ” We saw each other so little these days, with the sum of money of preparation that we were both being set, that it was almost a special treat to catch up. Bertram apparently felt the Lapp way.

“ What do you say to a picnic on the North Tower ? ” he asked with a flash. “ I’ll take hold of some things from the kitchens on my way up. ”

“ Sounds like a plan, ” I said. “ I’ll just let Mary & ndash ; oh, curse it ! ”

“ What ? ”

“ I’ve still got her spell book. ” I leaned down to my school bag and fished in it for some sheepskin and a quill. “ I’ll click her a note, that way I won’t leave to give it back to her. ”

Bertram looked confused. “ But didn’t you come in with her ? I would take in thought you’d have given it back then. ”

“ I meant to, ” I said ruefully, flattening out my lambskin on the mesa in front line of me, “ but we got waylaid by King James and Sirius, they were taken in by a Dick Turpin Tale, and I forgot about it. ”

A bitter feel crossed his fount and I remembered too late that he had something against them. I still hadn’t figured out what exactly it was because none of his explanations made a lot sense to me, but it was usually light to avoid mentioning them entirely. Deciding that I shouldn’t need to rationalise my friendly relationship with them, I concentrated on scrawling a note on my parchment ( I’ve still got your book & ndash ; don’t let me go away the Hall without giving it back to you ) and, scrunching it up, threw it across the two tabular array to where Mary was sitting.

Unfortunately Mary put her drinkable down at just the incorrectly moment and the bank note I had thrown bounced off her goblet and fell to the story. I didn’t think she’d even noticed it. Sirius, however, was next to her and did seem to have noticed, so I got his attention and tried to carry with hand gestures that the note was for Mary. He was looking rather nettle and appeared to be stabbing moodily at the food on his plate so I felt bad for interrupting him like that, but Mary needed the book for her Charms essay and I had antediluvian Runes just after dejeuner.

Fortunately whatever was aggravating him & ndash ; quite possibly, I reflected rather guiltily, what we had said earlier about Dione & ndash ; didn’t extend to Mary’s promissory note and he graciously picked it up and gave it to her. I smiled at him gratefully, then turned my attending to Mary. She opened the parchment, read it, and then looked for me at the Hufflepuff table, nodding her head and grinning as I caught her eye. practiced. I beamed at her and turned to Bertram.

“ Just don’t let me forget without giving it back to her, ” I told him, thinking that if both he and Mary were to cue me then it wouldn’t slip my mind again.

“ No job, ” he smiled, his arm reaching around my shoulders. I relaxed into him with a grin. Bertram went on. “ I think I can let go of you for that long. ”

“ But no longer ? ” I asked, still smiling fondly as I looked up at him.

He gave me a squeeze and kissed me gently. “ Definitely no longer. That, Laura, would conduct a lot of convincing for me to tally to. ”

****

On top of everything else we had to do, we were told during our following fantasm lesson that for those students who were of age, there would be tests available to be taken in Hogsmeade in early May. This was greeted with a stir of interest from the sixth-years, most of whom would be seventeen by that time if they weren’t already. Madonna, however, didn’t have her birthday until the end of June and was feeling distinctly disgruntled.

“ Tha’d be richt, ” she muttered in the common way after supper. “ Everyone else will be capable t’Apparate an’I’ll be stuck behin’waitin’on a licence. ” We were already well into our Charms homework so I was a bit surprised she was still thinking about it.

“ Don’t be like that, ” I said. “ Tell you what, I’ll not acquire the tryout this time. I could probably do with the redundant practice anyway. Then we’ll go to the Ministry in the vacation, after your birthday, and take the test together. ”

She looked at me incredulously. “ Why woul’ye dae tha’? ”

“ Let’s face it, ” I said, “ I’m still not the good at it. ” And to illustrate my point I rubbed my eyebrow, which had needed to be reattached after the previous week’s object lesson when I’d left it behind. “ And I don’t sense the need to have my permit yet anyway. I’m felicitous to wait. ”

She smiled at me. “ If ye’re sure, then, ” she said.

I smiled back. “ Of line I am. I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t. ”

“ Thanks, Laura. I knew ye were a goo’frien’. ”

I went back to Spellotaping my copy of ether : A Quest back together & ndash ; it had turned up, tear and a little dented around the quoin and generally looking the worse for clothing, wedged between my bed and the wall and hidden behind a jumble of shoes and other oddments & ndash ; and Virgin Mary started back on the recent essay quintessence was supposed to be helping us with. Before long, however, we were interrupted by the portrait hole opening noisily and I looked up to see Sirius rushing into the room. He looked around, visibly agitated, until he found our table.

“ Laura, I am so sorry, but you’ve got to see this, ” he said, gasping for breathing space and obviously in a hurry. “ seed on. ” I looked at him, baffled. “ NOW ! ” he shouted.

Figuring it was easier than arguing the degree I got up to follow him, and he grabbed my mitt and virtually yanked me through the portrait hole. Once out, he pulled out the bipartizan mirror. “ Prongs ! Got her, ” he whispered into it, nodding significantly. “ Don’t let them leave. ”

“ Are you going to severalize me what this is about ? ” I asked as he pulled me along corridors and fine-tune stairway. More than once we took short-cuts I hadn’t previously known about, using tunnels hidden behind suits of armour or random paintings.

“ You have to see, ” was all he would say. “ So long as we’re not too late … ” He was still clutching my helping hand and it felt like my arm was going to be pulled from its socket & ndash ; his longer leg were propelling us much faster than I felt comfortable going.

Finally we reached the arras of Andros the Invincible, where I had seem him talking to his Brother on his birthday all those months ago. James and Remus appeared from nowhere, James raising an eyebrow at Dog Star who promptly let go of my paw.

I was panting, worn out from the multi-storey sprint we had done. Canicula looked at me and said again, very quietly, “ I am so sorry. ” I was about to say something but Henry James held up a finger's breadth to restrain me unruffled and let me catch my breath before grabbing the tapestry and tapping it with his scepter. It immediately came crashing to the floor, revealing yet another undercover passageway and, at its entrance, a couple locked in a tight embrace. Their surprise faces sour towards us and revealed a seventh-year Ravenclaw miss and & ndash ; Bertram.



Author's note : Again, I'd like to call for that any potential reviewers refrain from using bad oral communication in their reviews. Remember all reviews must remain 12+ and if they're not then they'll be deleted, and I'd hatred for that to happen. Thank you. : )
26
Bertram.

Bertram and a young lady.

Bertram and a missy who wasn’t me.

Hands all over her & ndash ; well I knew what that felt like, though seeing him doing it to someone else was a footling like an out-of-body experience. Shirt half off, belt undone and trousers open, and her robes pulled up around her thighs. Snogging as though their lives depended on it. And he was supposed to be my swain ?

So this was what Sirius had wanted to usher me. My beau being overly friendly with someone else. I didn’t know what I had expected to see when the tapestry fell, but I did get it on it wasn’t that.

In any guinea pig, I stood there in blow for what seemed an eternity. Suddenly I found my voice. “ Something you wanted to recite me, Bertram ? ” I asked coldly.

“ Laura ! It’s not what it looks like ! I can explicate ! ” He sounded panicked, fumbling as he tried to do his pant back up.

“ I think it’s pretty obvious what it is, ” I said, mustering as often self-regard as I could find under the circumstances.

“ No ! Please ! ” He looked hopefully at James, Canicula and Remus, who had cold wildness emanating from their faces.

“ I’ve seen enough, ” I said, still coldly. “ How about you just keep on doing whatever you think it is that you’re doing. Do whatever you like & ndash ; or whoever you like. I don’t maintenance. I never want to see you again. ” And I turned on my cad and walked calmly away.

At least, I hoped it was calmly. I had a violent storm raging inside me but I was determined to get out of sight before I would let it take over. After what seemed like forever I reached the bend in the corridor where I had hidden back in Nov and, rounding it, sank to the floor and leaned up against the wall, relieved to be out of sight.

I was sure enough I had steam coming out of my ear. Why did he do it ? How could he do that to me ? What did I do wrong ? After everything he’d said, after all the romantic gestures, how he’d behaved over the holiday, insisting on meeting my parents and everything, how could he do that ? I wasn’t sure if I was more angry or disturbed. I didn’t be intimate him but I was fond of him and had been increasingly growing fonder, and he had seemed so sincere. Clearly I wasn’t as dependable at reading masses as I had thought.

And I understood why Sirius had refused to say anything on the way downstairs, why I’d had to see. Because if they’d just told me it was happening I may not have got believed them. Bertram didn’t like them at all and I had the episodic impression that the impression was mutual, so I could well own thought that they were just trying to discredit him for whatever intellect. But this, this was trial impression. There was no talking his way out of this, there was zilch else he could possibly have been doing. And to think I’d been starting to actually trust him when he’d said how special he thought I was, how especial, how beautiful …

Through my privileged turmoil I heard footsteps moving quickly away, and wondered if the boys were letting Bertram outflow or if they would do something to him for me. Make him lose. “ Thanks, Wormtail, ” said James’voice, sounding further away than it actually was.

Sirius had come around the corner to check on me. “ Geez, I am so sorry, ” he said again, seeing my font as he sat down beside me. “ But you had to know. ”

“ Did I ? ” I asked scathingly. “ What if I was happier not knowing ? ”

“ It would stimulate hurt more in the hanker run, ” he said reassuringly, putting an arm around my shoulders and giving me a squeezing. It was tender and surprisingly comforting and I allowed myself to unwind. “ Would you rather have gone on, maybe for calendar month, and then found out about it ? ”

I thought about it. “ Probably not, ” I agreed finally. “ But why would he do that ? ”

Sirius shook his head. “ I can’t work it out either, ” he said. “ He needs his question read. He must have known what would happen. ”

It was a bit lame but I appreciated the show of support, and he gave me another squeeze as we sat there, me feeling rather comforted by his presence as I attempted to work my way through what were definitely some conflicting emotions. My eyes were dry but I wasn’t sure how long they’d remain that way, though I was doing a fairly good job at keeping the tears at bay for the meter being. Eventually I felt cook to stand again and Sirius helped me up and back around the corner to the scene of the crime, his comforting arm still around my shoulders.

I stopped dead. Peter and Remus had disappeared, but Bertram was still there, thankfully fully clothed by now. It looked like he was in a full body bind and his chief had ballooned to double up its normal size. James had levitated him and was pushing him along the corridor impatiently.

“ Thanks, hombre, ” I said weakly.

James turned around and looked at me. “ How’s she doing ? ” he asked Canicula.

“ Holding up, ” he said. I nodded, though I suspected it looked a little half-hearted. “ I think she needs solid food though. ”

Henry James surveyed me critically, then nodded. “ Chocolate. She’ll feel like she’s been through a Dementor attack. Take her John L. H. Down to the kitchens. I’ll find somewhere big to knock down this git. ”

I found I didn’t beware them talking about me as if I wasn’t there. Somehow it was easier to not actually participate in the conversation. James was mightily, I did experience a bit like I’d encountered a Dementor, and it wasn’t a particularly dainty sensation.

“ You all right to walk ? ” asked Canicula, looking at me. “ It’s not far, just down from the Great G. Stanley Hall & ndash ; do you cerebrate you can make it ? ”

I took a trench breather, wondering if I needed to convince him or myself. “ Should be able to. ”

“ That’s the spirit, ” he grinned, dropping his arm from my shoulder and taking my hand instead. “ Let me know if you’re having fuss, though, okay ? ” He began to guide me through the very passageway Bertram and his jade had been hiding in, which went down steeply, in some place becoming stair. Every now and then he said “ duck's egg, ” as the roof dipped significantly and then levelled out again. Fortunately we were now moving much more slowly than we had on the way down from Gryffindor Tower & ndash ; I didn’t think I would physically take in been able to go at that yard again. Eventually we emerged from behind a statue and, after moving down another couple of corridors, stopped adjacent to a still life of a bowl of fruit.

We were unnervingly stopping point to the entree to the Hufflepuff common room and I felt more than a short on border just being there. Fortunately, as I was to discover, we wouldn’t be there long. Dropping my hand, Dog Star tickled the Pyrus communis and the house painting giggled and swung from the rampart, revealing the Hogwarts kitchens.

I had never seen so many house imp in my entire lifetime. Upon seeing us, they clamoured around like a year of chief school day children, none any taller than waist pinnacle, all offering their military service to Canicula, who they seemed to know well.

“ Mr Black ! Mr Black ! How can Totty help Mr Joseph Black ? ” came a mellow pitched vocalisation, only to be outdone by what seemed the like century of like phonation as they all clamoured around him. Sirius started laughing.

“ Hey, hey, calm down, ” he said, waiting for the palaver to subside. “ Now, everyone, this is Laura. Laura has just had a bad shock. I was thinking she needs cocoa, maybe some treacle tart, that form of thing. What can you do for her ? ”

In an New York minute I was bombarded by theatre elves. “ Miss Laura, here is some food ! ” squeaked one, forcing on me a tray containing a mass of chocolate frog, some & eacute ; clairs, a slice of treacle working girl and a jam doughnut. Another house elf was trying to give me a huge mug of hot chocolate with at to the lowest degree a dozen marshmallows in it. I felt a bit overpower, so was relieved when Sothis again took control and took the tray and mug from me.

“ You’ve been more than kind, ” he called above the full general agitation, and the excitable elf rushed to him once again. “ Thanks, all of you. But I think we’d better be going. ” And, expertly balancing the tray on one mitt, he grabbed my manus with his other one and led me out of the kitchens.

“ So that was the kitchen, ” I said as he settled me in an empty classroom nearby, though thankfully well out of good deal of the corridor that led to the Hufflepuff common room. “ Is it always that disorderly ? ”

He shrugged. “ Pretty much. They’re always really keen to help. ”

“ And I used to call back you lot were so smart, raiding the kitchens for food all the fourth dimension, ” I said wryly, unwrapping a chocolate batrachian and grabbing it absent-mindedly before it jumped away. “ You’re not exactly forcing them at wandpoint to hand it over, are you ? ”

He grinned as he watched me wolf down another drinking chocolate frog and start on the treacle harlot. “ You feeling amend now ? ”

“ Yeah, I am, ” I realised. “ Thanks. ” I started on the hot hot chocolate.

He watched me in silence for a while, distractedly raking his finger's breadth through his hair. “ I meant what I said before, ” he said eventually. “ This way will be easier in the long run. ”

“ I know, ” I said with a sigh. “ Doesn’t make it easy now, though. ” Suddenly a thought came to me and I looked up at him. “ How did you know about it ? ”

He hesitated. Finally he reached into his gown and pulled out a blank firearm of lambskin and, unfolding it, laid it on the dear desk and tapped it lightly with his wand. “ I solemnly swear that I am up to no good, ” he intoned, looking at it. Suddenly it sprung to life, with lines and dots reaching to all corners of the parchment, which now I looked at it was rather declamatory. I suspected it was the Saame thing we had seen them poring over in the common way a mates of weeks earlier. He beckoned me over.

“ It’s a map, ” he said as I bent down to look at it. “ The guys and I wrote it. ”

I looked at him in awe. “ But this is incredible ! It shows everybody at Hogwarts on it ! ” Sure enough, it did & ndash ; the map, which seemed to feature every room and musical passage in the castling, also had little back breaker moving around it, each accompanied by a name in miniscule committal to writing. In a room near the kitchens I could see two dit labelled ‘ Laura Cauldwell’and ‘ Sothis black & rsquo ;, indicating where we were. Finding the Gryffindor plebeian elbow room, I could see ‘ Lily Evans’and ‘ Remus Lupin’next to each other, probably discussing prefect duties, and ‘ Martha Hornby’and ‘ Charlotte Trimble’looked like they were at the mesa I’d been sitting at before all this started. I grinned despite myself when I noticed ‘ Mary Macdonald’and ‘ Marcus Charles Kay Ogden’in an empty classroom just down the antechamber & ndash ; at least Mary’s boyfriend chose her to make out with. Looking further over the sheepskin, I noticed respective passageway I hadn’t previously been aware of, and ‘ Severus Snape’was moving quickly down one of them that came out near what appeared to be the Slytherin park room. In plus, there were a number of tunnel leading out of the castle which went off the boundary of the map in the direction of Hogsmeade.

He let me stimulate a good look at the map before he spoke again. “ We were checking the map to number & ndash ; well, down here, actually, to the kitchens for a night-time feast & ndash ; when we saw them in a humble enclave behind that tapestry with the dancing trolling on it. Well, what else would they be doing in a place like that at nine o’clock at dark ? So we sent Wor- Peter out to check & ndash ; he’s, er, good at sneaking around without being seen & ndash ; and he came back and confirmed it. ” He stopped as I looked up sharply, my brain finally working out the entailment of what he’d just said.

“ You’re saying this has happened before ? ”

He nodded. “ Yep. We found out just after the holidays. ” I nodded, leaning in closer to the map and staring at the stain Bertram and the Ravenclaw miss had been. Canicula had sat down on the desk opposite and was continuing. “ I wanted to tell apart you straight away, myself, but Pr- James pointed out that it might’ve been a one-off, that these thing can happen even in the best relationships. You know, caught off guard, a moment of impuissance, that type of affair. And you never know, he might give got a fit of the guilts and told you himself … So William James thought we should wait … and if it happened again … then we’d … tell apart you … ”

His voice trailed off and I looked up at him, wondering if he’d entail to break off there because I had the feeling he hadn’t. And he did look somewhat distracted, eye glazed over a little, though I couldn’t for the living of me think why that might be the instance. Noticing me watching him, however, he very quickly came to, shaking his headway a bit and looking almost embarrassed as he put his feet on a chair in front of him and leaned forward, his elbows on his human knee and his manpower clasped together. “ rightfulness. fountainhead, since then we’ve been checking periodically to see if they did it again, and, well, tonight they did. So we put Pete inside the burrow to stop them escaping that way, and James and Remus stood guard in the passageway under James’invisibility Cloak, and I & ndash ; ” He paused again as I looked up once more : it was my turn to be distracted.

“ Epistle of James has an invisibleness Cloak ? ? ” That had to be how he and Remus had seemed to appear out of nowhere. But really, old money, a two-party mirror, and now this ? Not to advert looking, popularity, sporting power and encephalon. What did the boy not experience ? ( Oh yeah. The girl of his aspiration. But I was pretty sure as shooting that was coming. )

Sothis waved a hand impatiently. “ Yeah, yeah, he has an invisibleness Cloak. Anyway, they stood safeguard and I came to get you. You know the rest. ”

“ I’m glad I dumped him, then, ” I said, and my voice sounded more bitterly than I’d intended. “ James is right, once you can sometimes explain away, but twice … ” I trailed off, not able to think of something to say that didn’t sound junior-grade and vindictive, and I straightened up and made my way back to my pilot seat, my gaze focused on my denture. I had finished the treacle fancy woman and was starting on the jam doughnut, the last thing on my tray, and I was definitely tone better. In fact, from this length, I was almost okay that my relationship with Bertram was over & ndash ; at least I wouldn’t spend any more time fending him off or trying to free who I talked to. Though, come to think of it …

“ What did you do to him ? ” I asked, looking up again, though I was pretty sure I knew.

“ full phase of the moon organic structure bind, simple Engorgement Charm, ” he said, looking at me carefully. “ We wanted to urinate his head a more allow size of it, considering what he thought he was practiced enough to get away with. ” He was still watching me, looking for any chemical reaction.

I smiled wanly. “ And where did James go out him ? ”

Sirius came back over to the board and scanned the map. “ Outside Dumbledore’s post, by the looks of things, ” he said. I smiled to myself briefly & ndash ; I didn’t even sleep with where Dumbledore’s office was. “ He’ll recover him when he comes out in the good morning, ” Sirius went on. He looked sharply at the map for a 2nd, but the expression of disquiet was gone as soon as I noticed it, and he shrugged quite unconcernedly.

“ But you’ll get in bother ! ” I said, suddenly horrified they would have to go through a hold because of me. I found I was much less worried about Bertram, with his swollen point, having to stay on a dusty stone floor all night, unable to move.

He raised his eyebrows. “ So ? We’ll cop that. It was Worth it. ” I looked at him quizzically. “ Look, Laura, it’s not like we’ve never done detention before, ” he said defensively, pushing his hair's-breadth out of his eyes. “ It will probably even be fun, if they don’t split us up again. And he deserved it, he should never experience done that to you in the beginning place. ”

I nodded vaguely, not really concentrating on what he was saying as my nous persisted in going at a million miles an hour. Despite the chocolate & ndash ; and I did feel a bit better, I hadn’t been lying about that & ndash ; the fully deduction of what Bertram had done was beginning to sink in and I was starting to experience in danger of breaking down, and I didn’t want to do that in front of Sirius. That was what people like Mary were for, after all. So I stood up, surprising myself by doing it without too much effort and without shaking, and said, “ I think I’d like to go back to the tower now. ” My voice still wasn’t at its usual tone, but it was getting there.

“ Of course, ” Sirius said, reaching for my helping hand again. “ I’ll get you back in one piece. ” He paused. “ Oh & ndash ; and Laura ? ”

I looked up at him. “ Yes ? ”

“ Would you mind not mentioning the map to anyone ? We don’t want word of honor about it getting out, we’d never hear the end of it. ”

I nodded. “ Of line not. I’d assumed that went without saying. ” The map was clearly one of the male child’secrets and I’d felt privileged to have been allowed to see it.

He smiled. “ Thanks. ” And with that he picked up the map with his other hand and, flicking it expertly, got it in the rightfield office to ensure the corridors to hit surely we didn’t encounter Filch, Mrs Clay, Peeves, or anyone else who might not take kindly to us being out after curfew.

Once back in the common room, I thanked him again and headed straight up to the dorm. Mary, who was obviously back from her detour with Marcus and had seen me come in, followed almost immediately.

“ I hear’wha’happened, ” she said quietly. “ Remus came an’tol’us an’then Henry James came ba’wi’some to a greater extent item an’all. He said ye were i’th’kitchens gettin’some food ? ”

“ Yeah, Dog Star took me in, ” I said, suddenly realising what that would vocalise like to, say, Elvira.

“ Are ye okay ? ” she asked.

I shook my chief and all of a sudden I was crying. All the anger and annoyance and frustration came to the surface and I couldn’t hold back myself. “ So much for feeling wanted, ” I sobbed.

“ He’s a lyin & rsquo ;, cheatin’scumbag who doesna deserve someone as expert as ye, ” said Blessed Virgin loyally, as Lily, Martha and Charlotte all joined us in the dorm.

“ Laura, we’re so sorry ! ” exclaimed Lily. “ Saint James the Apostle and Remus told us what happened. How could he do that to you ? ”

I smiled at her through the tear. No issue how bad I felt, the outrage that the missy were showing on my behalf made me feel calmer. “ I thought I knew him, ” I said, hiccoughing, aware my impertinence were wet and my eye red. “ And I thought he was special. Now, I guess he’s not. ”

“ Anyone who can do that to a soul is definitely not extra, ” charlotte said savagely, squeezing my hand.

“ But why did he do it ? ” I asked plaintively. “ What did I do wrong ? ”

“ Don’t be silly, you did nothing wrong, ” said Lily firmly, sitting adjacent to me and stroking my hair gently. “ He just didn’t recognise how right he had it. Deserves everything he gets. ”

I smiled again despite myself. “ Even if it comes from Jesse James and Sirius ? ”

Lily nodded. “ Even then, ” she admitted. “ Actually, I don’t think I could pick out anyone better at it than they are. ”

“ They go’caugh & rsquo ;, too, ” Mary said suddenly. “ James IV, tha’is. Filch foond him ootside Dumbledore’s office tryin’t’dump Bertram. ”

“ What ! ! ” I sat up on my bed, horrified. Of course. They most probably only had one map, and Dog Star had it which meant William James wouldn’t have been able to see where Filch was patrolling. They’d decided my need was heavy than theirs. I’d never realised they had that in them.

“ Yeah, he did, ” confirmed Martha. “ Apparently Filch went straight to Dumbledore, who reversed the jinxes and got the tarradiddle from Bertram. And King James I didn’t refuse anything. ” She paused. “ Bertram named James IV and Canicula as the unity who had done it & ndash ; I guess Peter and Remus had gone by then ? ” She looked enquiringly at me.

“ Yeah, they left, ” I said hoarsely.

“ Right, so he named James and Sirius, and they’ve been given a double detention. I guess Canicula has found out about that now, too. ”

I sank back down again. Sirius had told me that would go on, had been completely blas & eacute ; about the whole thing, but I felt terrible that they had done this for me and been rewarded with a double detainment. I felt like going to Dumbledore and asking to answer it with them, as it was my mistake they’d done it in the foremost place.

“ Who was th’girl ? Dae we know her ? ” asked Mary.

I shrugged. She had looked vaguely familiar but frankly I didn’t care who she was. “ Some tart from Ravenclaw. Obviously she’ll put out, which I’m guessing would be why he chose her. ” My part, while still a little watery, sounded more acerbic than I had intended it to.

Lily looked at me sternly. “ Don’t you ever think this is your shift because of that, ” she said almost severely. “ If he really cared about you he’d observe your conclusion and not be pressuring you all the time. If he didn’t really care, then he was only after one matter and you’re intimately off rid of him. ”

I thought about it. What she said made horse sense, and when my intellect was in less tumult I’d probably treasure the advice. “ Thanks, ” I said, still a bit weakly. This had taken more out of me than I had realised.

“ I thought Hufflepuffs were supposed to be loyal, ” Charlotte mused. “ Bertram mustn’t have got that owl. ”

“ They are loyal, ” Martha pointed out. “ Bertram’s dedication just happens to occupy with his you-know-what rather than with his girlfriend. ” I smiled wryly & ndash ; while her selection of Good Book wasn’t what I would probably deliver used, she did have a stop. “ I’d offer to plot revenge, ” she went on matter-of-factly, “ but it looks like the son have beaten us to it. Unless you wanted him to support any more ? ”

I thought about it. “ I don’t know, ” I said. “ I feel like he’d deserve it, but then I’m not for certain he’s worth spending the spare effort on. ”

Lily nodded. “ Well, if you do adjudicate you want us to do something, just say the word. We’d be well-chosen to. ”

The Virgin pretended to look scandalised. “ Is this a prefec’offerin’t’break th’linguistic rule ? ” she asked with a grin.

Lily put on her best ‘ I wasn’t doing anything’face. “ Of course not, ” she said, eventually failing to obliterate her grin. “ At least, not any prescript worth worrying about. However, if Bertram happens to be in the way when I’m practicing my spells, I won’t be held accountable. ”

I had stopped crying and my cheek were drying at a rate of Calidris canutus. Charlotte was sitting on the bed holding my hand, and Martha had started rummaging through her luggage compartment. “ Chocolate ? ” she asked brightly, holding up a stop of Honeydukes.

I shook my head. “ Thanks, but I’ve had heaps. Sirius took me to the kitchens afterwards to help me calm down. ”

“ That’s right, ” said Martha, shaking her question at herself. “ James did say, but I’d forgotten. Well, since I’ve got it out … anyone else ? ”

Blessed Virgin, Lily and charlotte all helped themselves to a chunk of Honeydukes’finest and lay on the seam talking about men, in item hurling abuse at those deemed unworthy for whatever reason. Oddly plenty, that Nox Bertram was at the top of that listing. It was, however, a conversation that I didn’t really necessitate to participate in which suited me just ticket, especially since my brain was in turmoil and I was having hassle concentrating on anything. And then, out of the blue and surprising me by how reassuring it felt, it occurred to me that I’d just spent the best part of an hour and a half holding helping hand with Sothis Black.






author’s banknote : We already knew what they did to Bertram Aubrey, so this is my version of why they did it. And before you complain that it wasn’t decent … well I’d just like to founder James some citation as a moderating factor & ndash ; yes, James & ndash ; as well as the fact that Sirius didn’t actually get to allude him ( despite getting the detention for it ). Also a rather nifty first appearance of both the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder’s Map, don’t you think ?

Finally, I'd like to remind all potential drop reviewers to look on their oral communication in reviews so they don't end up getting deleted. Thank you !

27
One sound thing about going out with someone from a dissimilar year grouping is that when you break up, it’s much leisurely to avoid them. Bertram and I didn’t have any classes together and we weren’t in the Lapplander mansion so steering decipherable of him was, in hypothesis, childlike than it had been when, for deterrent example, Cadmus and I had broken up in one-fourth year.

However, Bertram apparently had other ideas. He kept coming up to me when I arrived in the Great Hall at mealtimes and hovering out-of-door my classrooms waiting for me to finish, all the time trying to get me to reconsider. I reflected somewhat bitterly that I was probably seeing Thomas More of him now we’d broken up than I had when we’d still been together.

Fortunately the other sixth-year Gryffindors had taken my incline and provided a protective barrier between us. Never had I been so pleased that I had so many classes with Saint James the Apostle and Sirius & ndash ; they were certainly the most intimidate boys in the year ( save some of the scarier-looking Slytherins ) and they were absolutely furious with Bertram, meaning that they moved in to protect me every time he appeared.

For the starting time few days after I dumped him, I was pretty upset with him and was keen to void seeing him at all. I sat with my cover to the Hufflepuff table at mealtimes and Blessed Virgin and Lily made a point of stationing themselves on either side of me, giving me periodic hug and talking about anything but boys. I noticed James and Sirius were often sitting directly antonym and usually had their sceptre on the tabular array in front of them, virtually probably as a deterrent to Bertram coming up behind me to try to talk to me ( though my proximity to Lily was most probably an sum fillip as far as James I was concerned ). Whether he did actually try to talk to me or not I couldn’t say with any certainty, however, as whenever the male child glared at somebody over my head and fingered their baton viciously I made a point of not turning around. It was easier said than done, but I managed it.

However, one day almost a week after we broke up, Bertram managed to slip through the protective net and public lecture to me. I was leaving Ancient Runes with Remus & ndash ; probably my most vulnerable time as he and I were the only Gryffindors in the class & ndash ; and heading downstairs to lunch.

“ Laura ! ” I recognised his spokesperson but still stopped automatically, more out of habit than anything.

“ What is it you want ? ” I asked coldly, noticing Remus had also stopped and had his wand bridge player inside his robes.

“ I need to explain, ” said Bertram, almost desperately. He had reached us by now and glanced nervously at Remus before turning back to me. “ Can we speak ? Alone ? ”

I glared at him. “ You can’t have anything to say to me that Remus can’t hear, ” I said. “ But no. I don’t want to talk to you. Ever. ”

“ But it wasn’t what it looked like ! ” He sounded rather forlorn, and share of me started enjoying his discomfort.

Remus stepped in. He was the same acme as Bertram but he did a good spotlight and Bertram seemed to contract in comparison. “ We all saw it, Aubrey, ” he said. “ And it’s not like you were rehearsing a caper or anything. What else could it be ? ” Remus was slow to anger but when he did it could be terrifying, something Bertram was just discovering.

Bertram looked shaken. “ Okay, it was. But it was a lapse ! A one-off ! I didn’t even relish it ! ” He looked searchingly at me. “ It would never have happened again, Laura. Please believe me. ”

Behind me I heard a sour laugh that sounded a bit like a bark. Only one soul laughed like that : Sirius. I smiled to myself & ndash ; there was safety in phone number and Sirius was a sinewy protagonist to have. And, usually, where Sirius went, there went James as well. I turned around to see them both, and Peter, walking purposefully along the passing towards us with their wands out, and a smell of comfort and security department flooded through me.

“ A one-off ? Really ? That’s not what I heard, ” Canicula said coldly, a very ugly look on his face. He gave his baton a swish and Bertram was suddenly impel backwards across the floor and into the Harlan Fisk Stone paries on the former side of the corridor, hitting it with rather a aloud thump. And there he stayed, apparently unable to move away, looking most uncomfortable and with his whole organic structure shaking a piddling, Sirius’scepter still trained on him. Whatever tour he was being held with was obviously a powerful one.

James nodded. “ Yeah, it happened at least twice that we know of, ” he agreed, making a show of fingering his verge as well. “ And Peter is our witness. ”

Bertram, still trapped against the wall, was getting red in his irritation. “ witnesser ? You can’t have a witness. ” He composed himself as best he could behind the spell that was holding him back. “ Because it didn’t happen. ” He looked back at me, almost begging me to believe him.

I looked at Peter. “ Tell him what you saw. ”

Peter stood with his helping hand behind his backrest and started almost reciting. “ You and Book of Esther Davies were behind the tapis of Barnabas the Barmy on the seventh floor. There’s a minuscule enclave behind it that will just fit two mass, if they’re standing close together. It was nine o’clock at night on Tuesday the nineteenth of Apr, I was going past on my way back to Gryffindor Tower after a detention and get wind a noise so I peeked behind the tapestry to investigate. You were so busy & ndash ; erm & ndash ; doing early thing, that you didn’t notice me. ”

I knew that at least part of that wasn’t true & ndash ; Peter hadn’t been on his way back to the tower after detention & ndash ; but the sleep was most probably accurate. From the way the colour was draining from Bertram’s face, I decided that it was.

James’facial expression was stony as he walked towards Bertram and stared down at him. At about six foot he was only a duad of column inch taller but he made that seem significant. “ Care to explain your way out of that, Aubrey ? ”

Bertram mumbled something incomprehensible to the floor, then looked back at me. “ Laura, I can make it up to you. I promise. please ? I … I love you ! ”

I blinked. The first clip he’d said it, the start metre anyone early than my family had ever told me that, and I didn’t believe a word of it. Could my choice of beau be any worsened ?

“ No you don’t, ” I said coldly, hoping the tears I could experience coming stayed put. “ You barely roll in the hay me, really. If you love anyone, it’s the somebody you think I am, because you never bothered to bump out if she and I actually had anything in common. ”

He looked gobsmacked and I felt rather pleased with myself. I thought I might even be able to get out of this without crying.

“ Of class I know you, ” he protested, rather feebly I thought. “ You’re wonderful. I’m crazy about you. ”

I shook my head again. “ You can’t be. Because if you were, you’d never have run around with mortal else behind my back. ” James and Sothis made noise of agreement behind me and I felt buoyed by their financial backing. Looking coldly at Bertram, who seemed speechless, I gave him what I hoped was my most disdainful looking. “ Anyway, Bertram, what part of ‘ I never want to see you again’did you not understand ? Because I meant it. I’ll even say it again if you’re not convinced. ” I paused for dramatic effect. “ I never want to see you again. ” And I walked past him towards the stairs that would take me down to the Great Hall.

Remus soon caught up with me and put a comforting arm around my articulatio humeri, which were threatening to take up shaking. “ wellspring done, ” he said in that marvellous value voice of his. Remus was always a lovely calming influence and could distribute almost any billet when he chose to & ndash ; in this case, me looking like I was about to erupt into tear.

“ I just hope it worked, ” I said quietly, my eyes still welling up a slight. “ So he stops bugging me. I don’t need a constant monitor of how stupid I was. ”

“ You weren’t stupefied, ” he said. “ thing like that have been happening for time immemorial and it’s got nothing to do with being stupid. If anything, you were overbold enough to get out once you found out. ”

I smiled at him, though I felt rather drained. “ Thanks. But where are the others ? ” I had just realised we were alone.

“ Probably making sure he knows not to trouble you again, ” Remus said mildly. “ I suspect we don’t want to bonk exactly what they’re up to. Remember, if we don’t know then we can’t evidence against them. ” We arrived in the entering Marguerite Radclyffe Hall and he gave me a quick squeeze before dropping his arm from my berm as we made our way into the Great dormitory for luncheon, probably not wanting to start any rumours or give Dione any ammo for one of her story.

I was rather storm when a minute or two later I saw Bertram enter the Great G. Stanley Hall, obviously freed from whatever holding patch Sothis had used on him and seemingly unhexed and unscathed. Remus and I looked up at King James, Dog Star and Peter, who had also just arrived and sat down opposite us.

“ What, no feathers ? ” I asked them. “ I’m almost disappointed. ”

James shook his head. “ We just had a bit of a lecture with him, ” he said carelessly. “ Pointed out that if he’s going to do such a dumb thing then he’s got to be prepared for the consequences. ”

Remus raised his supercilium. “ And those consequences don’t take you cursing him into side by side week ? ”

Sirius grinned. “ Tempting, but no. But don’t worry, if he tries to mouth to Laura again we will. Call it a warning. ”

I wasn’t convinced. “ What did you say to him ? ”

“ What Prongs said, ” said Dog Star, fixing his heart on me. “ I think it’s a case of not knowing what you’ve got till you lose it. And he’s just realising that. ” He almost made it sound like I was someone worth having and I appreciated the show of support.

James nodded, heaping blimp and jacket potatoes onto his home base. “ He’ll beat himself up about it just as practically as we could, ” he added. I raised my eyebrows incredulously but if St. James the Apostle noticed he ignored it. “ Makes it much easier for us, too, ” he went on. “ He suffers and we get to watch it and don’t even get detention for it. It’s a win-win situation. ” He grinned at us.

Remus was nodding. “ I can’t argue with that, ” he said, looking over his shoulder towards the Hufflepuff table. “ He looks pretty miserable. ”

“ Serves him right, ” I said bitterly. “ I hope he’s so cut up that he fails all his triton because of it. ”

Sirius laughed. “ Are you sure ? That might entail he’s back again succeeding year. ”

I shook my fountainhead. “ Nah, he wouldn’t have the guts to look up. Not with you lot around. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but he finds you a bit intimidating. ”

William James grinned. “ We’d figured as much. Which is why we came to touch you after class today. And I’m sorry we were late, we got held up. ”

prick smiled reminiscently. “ poor Snivellus. He never should have tried to stop us. ”

Remus and I looked at each other and shook our drumhead, though we were both smiling. “ Now we definitely don’t want to make love, ” said Remus, and we focused on finishing our lunch.

****

I wasn’t the only when one with beau troubles. Charlotte and Hector Bole had also broken up, though in LE arresting fate & ndash ; it was more of an understanding that it wasn’t going anywhere and they weren’t actually all that concerned in each early. While she wasn’t quite as upset as I had been she was still down in the dump, convinced that no one would ever regain her attractive, and it was a good misdirection for me to help her get through it as she had helped me. It was probably also a goodness matter that Mary, Lily and Martha were around to ensure we didn’t just feed off each other’s miserableness and end up wallowing in self-pity.

Fortunately for us our teachers seemed to have a like idea and were piling on the homework even harder than they had been previously. Our exams were coming up in less than two month and every class seemed to emphasise this distributor point, which managed to succeed in taking our minds off any personal problem we might be having.

We were further distracted one evening a calendar week or two later when we went back into the dorm after supper, only to find that soul else had been in there. Not that it was ransacked or anything, but it had certainly been, well, looked at, for need of a better term. This was confirmed by the odd demeanor of Mary’s cat, Circe, who pounced on us as soon as the room access was opened, her claws sticking into Madonna’s arm where she had lodged herself.

“ Something’s not right, ” said Martha, screwing up her face as she looked around the residence hall.

“ No, ” agreed Lily. “ It’s almost like someone else has been in here. ”

I looked at my bedside cabinet. The clock and book I kept there were definitely not in the same spot they’d been that morning, and when I opened the cupboard below the books were stacked in there in a much neater pile than I had left them in. “ Yeah, like they’ve searched it or something. ”

“ Hoo strange, ” The Virgin muttered, trying in vain to extricate her sleeve from the cat’s chela. “ An’whoe’er it was, they’ve freaked Circe oot badly. ” She started trying to calm her pile, stroking her backbone and making soothing noises.

Martha looked around critically. “ Anything missing ? ”

We all had a warm looking through our things but no one could think of anything that should suffer been there but wasn’t. The totally matter was, to severalise the trueness, decidedly baffling.

That is, it was baffling until Lily opened the doorway to the bathroom and groaned loudly. “ I think I’ve worked it out, ” she said over her articulatio humeri.

“ Who ? ” Charlotte went to her eagerly, and Lily pulled a musical note off the bathroom mirror and handed it to her. Charlotte read it and groaned as well.

“ What ? ” My curiosity was getting the skilful of me.

“ This is what it says, ” said Charlotte, sitting on Martha’s bed, which was nearest. “ Dear Lily, Laura, Charlotte, The Virgin, and Martha. Thanks so much for allowing us to have a facial expression at your dorm. We found it so much more interesting than ours is ! Sincerely, Jesse James, Dog Star, Remus and Peter. ” She looked up. “ And they’ve all signed it individually, so they were all here. ”

“ Ye’re kiddin & rsquo ;, ” gasped Mary, who had by now settled her cat, who was lying purring on her lap. “ They were i’here ? Bu’hoo ? ”

“ I have no idea, ” said Lily, shaking her headway as she sat down on her own bed. “ The stairs should have changed for them, they shouldn’t have been able to get up this far. Even if they climbed the slideway, you can’t get past the second-year dorm unless you’re really in effect at climbing, and if nix else I wouldn’t have thought putz could take done it. ”

“ And the stairs are too wide to go up with a animal foot on each wall, even for someone as improbable as Dog Star, let alone Peter, ” agreed Martha, who had joined Charlotte on her bed so she could have a look at the note. “ Yep, the handwriting lucifer, ” she went on, scrutinising the signatures. “ They all wrote on it. ”

Madonna giggled, though it sounded a trivial holler. “ Nae wonder Circe was so upse’. Havin’those lads i’here woul’be enough t’try anyone’s patience. ”

I sat on my bed in a balmy state of shock. “ You do agnize what this means, though, ” I said, trying to put my intellection into words.

“ What ? ” asked Charlotte.

“ We have no secrets from them any more, ” I said. “ If they can get in here, then they can ascertain out almost anything about us. We have no more secrecy from them. ”

Lily was sitting stock still as she took in what I said. “ You’re right, ” she said eventually. “ good, what are we going to do ? ”

Virgin Mary looked around. “ None o’ye keep back a diary, dae ye ? ” I too looked at Charlotte, Lily and Martha, who were all shaking their heads. “ fountainhead, tha’s one goo’thing a’least, ” she went on. “ We canna hae had too many secrets let oot. ”

Martha nodded. “ Good mentation, Blessed Virgin. From now on, no diaries, no compromising notation or letters, anything like that either has to be charmed so that you can’t see what it really is, or destroyed. ” She paused. “ Any of you have anything really embarrassing like a picture of mortal underneath your pillow ? ” Again, we all shook our heads. “ Good, ” she went on. “ And might I suggest that now would not be a just time to start doing that. ”

“ Definitely not, ” Charlotte agreed somewhat nervously.

“ knack on, ” Mary said suddenly, a extensive smile on her face. “ James was i’here ? Lily, hae ye checked t’stool sure ye’ve still go’all yer underwear ? ”

Lily went a rather fetching shade of scarlet and hurriedly opened up her bole and went through it. Eventually she resurfaced, still her cheeks still glowing. “ I think it’s all in here, ” she said. “ Though I can’t warranty he hasn’t looked at it. How can I ever look him in the eye again ? ”

“ More to the level, ” I told her, “ if that’s what he’s done, how can he ever look you in the eye again. You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. That is, unless you’ve got some knickerbockers that have ‘ I love Saint James’embroidered on them. ”

Lily, still crimson, hurled her pillow at me. “ Very funny. ”

Martha grinned. “ Not denying it, I notice. ”

“ I shouldn’t have to. ” Lily was steadfastly trying to hold on to as much self-worth as she could. “ Innocent until proven guilty, remember ? ”

“ Right, ” said Charlotte, who was looking more comfortable now and had a bit of a foul grinning on her face. “ And we’ll remind you of that following time you accuse Henry James of anything. ”

****

The next morning before breakfast I had a sudden epiphany in the dormitory. “ You know, ” I said, pulling on a shoe, “ Bertram and I could never have worked out long-run anyway. ”

“ Why not ? ” asked Lily, sounding surprised.

“ The gens’s all wrong, ” I explained. “ Laura Aubrey. It just sounds stupid. ”

Mary giggled. “ Aye, tha’it does, ” she agreed with a grin. “ Hoo does Mary Ogden soond ? ”

“ That’s all right, ” said Martha, who was doing up her schoolbag. “ What about Lily Potter ? ”

Lily threw a script at her. “ Not funny, fille Hornby. ”

“ It wasn’t supposed to be funny, I was being good, ” said Martha, grinning. “ And I thought it sounded mulct. But you’ve hit on another rationality I need to find myself a swain. We need to get me a new surname. ”

“ Well, why don’t we find the name you like full and clean the boy to suit ? ” I suggested. “ How about Martha Mulciber ? If goose egg else it’s alliterative. ” I ducked as Martha threw Lily’s al-Qur'an at me.

“ Martha Hopkirk’s okay, ” suggested charlotte, coming out of the can. “ Or Martha Carmichael. ”

“ Martha Toots ? ” Lily offered, referring to Tilden toot of Ravenclaw.

Martha shuddered. “ Toots is a nice enough bloke - when he's clean and jerk, of course - but you’ve got to admit that’s a dreadful name. Like Dearborn, that’s another shocker. ”

“ Anither cause fer ye t’hae dumped Hector, too, Charlotte, ” said Virgin Mary, who was drying her hair with a hot air charm. “ Bole’s a wicked gens. Makes ye soond lik’a bi’o’crockery. ”

“ Charlotte Lupin works, ” Lily said quietly, looking at charlotte, who went a rather fetching shade of crimson.

“ Yeah, you know I could never go for Remus, ” I said, handing Lily her record back. “ Laura Lupin. Ugh. ”

“ Or Lily lupine, ” agreed Lily, putting the book back on the pile adjacent to her bed. “ That’s just as bad. ”

“ I thought you liked alliteration ? ” Martha asked, grinning and winking at me.

I smiled back. “ Not when it’s me. Anyway, my full cousin is about to become Gwendolyn Llewellyn, ” I went on. “ That’s a pretty unfortunate person combination. ”

Martha made a face. “ I can’t argue with that. Now I’ve got one. Elvira Black ! ”

Charlotte laughed. “ In her dreams ! But why not go for the lot of them ? Greta Black ! ”

“ Tha’woul’be a scream, ” Madonna said, grinning. “ Tall, dark an’han’some matched wi’shor & rsquo ;, blonde an’dumpy. ” Harsh as it sounded, it was a average description of Greta Catchlove, the top of whose head was maybe raze with Sirius’thorax. And that was in program brake shoe, too. Chubby was another word Madonna could deliver chosen, I reflected.

Lily was continuing Queen City’s theme. “ How about Christmas carol inkiness ? Or Primrose Shirley Temple Black ? ” She was obviously having fun trying to think of who else was in the fan club. For some reason these proffer made me find rather uncomfortable and I wasn’t quite indisputable why, but I giggled along with the other missy.

“ Well then, changin’tack sligh’ly, Alecto Gibbon ? ” suggested Mary, an malefic grin on her face. “ Tha’woul’be perfec & rsquo ;, she e’en looks lik’one ! ”

Still feeling a trivial disquieted, I was smiling about the concept of Alecto becoming a Gibbon when unbidden, and unnerving me somewhat, a new name came into my head. Laura Shirley Temple. And it sounded good.

****

I grabbed Madonna after supper and dragged her to an discharge classroom. “ I’ve got to mouth to you, ” I muttered. “ Somewhere private. ”

She obediently sat down on an old desk and looked at me. “ Wha’s up ? ”

“ I have done the most incredibly stupid thing any girl could possibly do, ” I said, plonking myself down on a tabular array facing her.

“ An’tha’is ? ” she prompted, her eyes narrowing as she looked me over.

I got back up and went to the door, looking up and down the corridor to constitute sure no one was there, and then closed the room access for in force step. After all, I hadn’t block that James had an invisibleness Cloak, and I didn’t want to subscribe to a chance on anyone overhearing what I was about to say. Finally, once I was fulfil that we were quite alone, I put the words in order for the foremost time, even to myself. “ I think I’ve got a compaction on Sirius. ”

It had been bugging me all day, compounded every time I saw him, and I needed someone to slap some sentiency into me. somebody who wouldn’t laugh at me but also wouldn’t plant false hope in my header.

Mary, to her credit rating, didn’t wait horrified, or suppress a snort, or looking at at me sympathetically, or do anything else I’d been worry she might do. What she did feeling was confused. “ Ye guess ? ” she asked. “ Ye mean ye dinna know ? ”

“ Hard to say, ” I said, trying to explicate myself. “ It’s been coming on so gradually that it’s taken me by surprise a bit. But I’m pretty sure it’s there. He makes me laugh, you know ? And there’s times that I get that telltale tingling you get when they touch you, that sort of thing. ” I paused for a 2d, my cheeks burning. “ And ‘ Laura blackamoor’came to me this morning when we were going through names. ”

“ Hmmmm. ” She frowned slightly at me. “ Soonds lik’ye’re keen on him, all richt. Aye, it’s a obtuse affair t’dae. Tha'is, ye’re in a better position than ye were say a year ago, he a’leas’talk t’ye an’all, bu’I woul’still say yer chances are nae grea’. I’m sorry, Laura, but tha’s th’way it is. ”

“ That’s the problem, ” I said. “ I mean, when I didn’t know him, I didn’t like him. You know, the arrogant berk thing. But since I’ve got to know him best he’s grown on me, and I can’t seem to shake it off. ”

“ Ye shoul’prob’ly ge’tha’looked a & rsquo ;, ” she said seriously. “ Large growths lik’tha’are generally nae a good thing. Hae ye seen gentlewoman Pomfrey aboot it ? ”

“ Very funny, ” I groaned, though I was having trouble stopping myself from giggling. “ Can we get back to my problem ? ”

“ Richt, ” said Mary, a grin crossing her side. “ Shall I aler’Elvira tha’th’fan society’s aboot t’ge’a new member an’all ? ”

“ That’s the early trouble, ” I said, my giggles stopping abruptly. “ We know what he thinks of multitude like that. If he ever found out he’d probably never speak to me again. ”

She nodded, now looking much more serious. “ Aye, ye hae a poin’there, so I’ll retain this quiet. T’recap, ye illusion him and ye’re thinkin’it’s prob’ly a lost lawsuit. I’m guessing it doesna assistant when he looks tha’dear, either, ” she commented dryly. “ Though unlike James he doesna hae his pipe dream girl richt i’fron’o’us, so there may still be a luck fer ye. ”

I just looked at her. Yeah, right, like he would ever expect at me in that way. He could bear anyone he wanted, he wouldn’t bother wasting his time with the likes of me. “ cum on, Mary, be logical here, ” I said miserably. “ If I’m that painful that Bertram had to wander on me, then what chance would I have with someone like Canicula ? ”

Mary rolled her eyes. “ Stop bein’daft, ” she scolded. “ Tha’wasna yer fault. Ye were way too goo’fer him. He jus’couldna hold back it i’his trouser so when ye said nae he wa’dumb enough t’look elsewhere. ” She paused, ignoring the unbelieving look on my face. “ Richt, so wha’dae ye want me t’dae ? living ye through it jus’i’case, or try t’ge’ye o’er it ? ”

“ I’m not for sure, ” I admitted. “ I might get back to you on that one. Can we leave it for now that you won’t dedicate me crap about it ? It’s embarrassing enough without that to cap it all. ”

“ Ye drive a har’bargain, ” she grinned. “ Bu’okay. After all, ye didna tease me aboot my James matter, so it’s onla fair. ”

“ Thanks, ” I said with a grinning. “ And with any fortune I’ll just snap out of it like you did with King James. It shouldn’t strike me too long to occur to my senses, should it ? ”





Author’s note : Yep, she’s finally worked it out. Frankly Laura can be a bit clueless with regard to this sort of matter, but then again Bertram did trouble her for a while. Anyway, roll on the repose of the news report …

28
I wrote to my mother that night, feeling that I really should let her live what had happened with Bertram now that I was well-heeled telling the story again. I didn’t want to get into too very much point l I say too much about Sirius, knowing that Mum would be able-bodied to read between the telephone line, but I laid out the bare bones and explained that we wouldn’t be seeing each other any more.

Mum’s reaction surprised me. She had appeared to like Bertram a lot that day he visited during the holiday, so I wasn’t expecting her to be cheering. However, this is what she wrote :

Dear Laura

It was with great fill-in that I read your letter. I hope you’re not too upset by what happened, because I’m not sure as shooting Bertram was Charles Frederick Worth getting upset over. I didn’t want to say anything while you were seeing him, but there was something about that boy that made me uneasy.

Please don’t get tempestuous with me, I realise you may not be over him yet and therefore may still be sensitive to any negative comments. My independent objection to Bertram was that he plainly didn’t do you felicitous. You were constantly on boundary that day he came to visit, not at all your common ego, and you didn’t smile much or laugh at all. If my picayune girl is going to be falling for anyone, I would care them to be someone who makes her smile without her realising she’s doing it.

Also I am falling back on many geezerhood experience in the police force when I say that Bertram wasn’t entirely what he was making himself out to be. There was a rascality in his eyes that I didn’t like and he looked at you with covetousness rather than with warmheartedness. So your Book of Revelation that he was seeing someone else behind your back quite honestly didn’t storm me. I wish it wasn’t so, but it was.

On the other hand, the boys who looked after you when you found out sound much more safe. Maybe side by side time you should be looking closer to home for mortal to contribute your affectionateness upon ?

proceeds affectionateness and best of hazard. Y ou will get over him and you’ll be a good deal estimable for it once it happens. And know that we love you and you can always reckon on us to serve you to feel better.

circle of love,
Mum.

Madonna raised her brow when I showed her the letter. “ Yer ma’s really go’ye figured, hasna she ? ” she asked. “ Th’girl who go’cheated on bu’didna seem t’min’much because o’who tol’her aboot it. ”

“ I mind, ” I pointed out crossly. “ It still hurts that he did that. I’m just trying to distract myself by thinking about something a bit more pleasant. ”

She grinned. “ Wha & rsquo ;, Dog Star ? Aye, I dare say he is more pleasant t’think aboot. ”

“ Sshhh, ” I whispered, witting that we might possibly be overheard from our spot in the common room & ndash ; and this was definitely something I didn’t want anyone overhearing. To be on the secure side, I quickly cast Muffliato at all the nearby group of scholar.

“ Yer ma’s richt, though, ” commented Virgin Mary once I’d finished. “ Aboot Bertram, tha’is. He didna make ye smiling. E’er since yer birthday party, ye were on bound a lo’. Ye’re Sir Thomas More unstrain nou. ”

“ That’s because he kept making inappropriate prompting, ” I pointed out. “ You’d think that after the tenth metre I said no he would ingest got the hint. But still … ” I trailed off, not really sure what I had been intending to say.

“ Still wha’? ” Virgin Mary wasn’t going to let me get away with it that easily.

“ I do overlook him, ” I said. “ There’s something missing now. ”

“ Naethin’a skillful snog canna fix, ” Virgin Mary said with a grinning. “ Nou, we jus’need t’fin’ye a willin’henchman … ”

I looked quickly at the armchair by the attack that Canicula was ensconced in, blissfully ignorant of my predicament. Mary caught the action at law and groaned.

“ Nae, tha’s nae wha’I mean & rsquo ;, ” she admonished. “ A willin’collaborator who’s nae him. Or James, fer tha’matter,’cause then I micht toss off ye afore Lily does, even. ” I looked at her in surprisal. “ Aye, I micht be over him, ” she said, “ bu’only fer her. I’ll be richt irritated if anyone else ge’s a han’on him. ”

“ O.K., I’ll accept that, ” I said : it did vocalise fair. “ But what about Marcus ? ”

Madonna shrugged. “ I lik’him a lo & rsquo ;, ” she admitted, “ bu’I’ll always hae a sof’spo’fer James, I think. ”

“ Right, ” I said, changing the subject as her cheeks had gone a lilliputian pinko. “ But why can’t my collaborator be Sirius ? That’d work out all my problems at once. And apparently he’s skilful at it, too, if we believe what Martha had to say on the matter. ” I kept my voice down despite the Muffliato, just in showcase someone had missed being caught by the appealingness.

Blessed Virgin grinned. “ He can be yer collaborator, ” she said, “ bu’I’d sugges’ye go fer someone a wee bi’more realistic i’th’shor’term. Remember, they hae t’be willin’. ” My face fell. Of course, I’d forget that bit & ndash ; she certainly had a decimal point. In any case she started looking around the common way as though expecting to find somebody appropriate just sitting there waiting to be asked.

“ No you don’t, ” I said sharply as her gaze rested on the son by the fireplace, who were talking rather furtively among themselves and kept looking at the clock. “ Not Peter, I absolutely refuse. ”

“ Remus ? ” she suggested with a grin.

“ He’s not around, is he ? ” I asked, looking towards the fire again, where Remus was indeed blazing by his absence. “ I’m sure as shooting I heard Jesse James saying something about his furry little problem cropping up again. Which reminds me, I’m not sure I’d want someone who’s always running around after a rabbit anyway. Not to mention the fact that charlotte would most probably have me drawn and quartered if I even tried it. ”

“ Okay, ” she agreed reluctantly. “ Richt, ye can hae Gerry Stebbins, that’ll ge’him off my vertebral column fer a bi’as well. putting to death two birds wi’one curse ! ”

I groaned. “ Must I ? I thought we were looking for individual I wouldn’t mind snogging. And I’m sorry, but Gerry really doesn’t fit the bill. ”

“ hoot, ” Mary said cheerfully. “ Worth a sho & rsquo ;, though. ”

“ Ah, you can’t ask dick now anyway, ” I said a piffling triumphantly as he, James and Sirius got up from their spot by the fire and headed rather furtively out the portrait hole. “ So you’ve lost your opportunity. ”

“ Damn, ” Mary said again. “ Richt, hoo aboot Avery ? He’s a charming lad an’all. ” She ducked as I picked up a rather heavy Charms textbook and swung it at her head.

We were still going on the same track half an minute later when Martha came over with Lily and charlotte in tow. “ Right, Virgin Mary, you coming ? ” she asked briskly. “ Astronomy’s starting in ten instant. Good night for it, too, the moon’s replete so we should be able to see loads. ”

“ Oh, aye, ” said Blessed Virgin hurriedly, quickly looking through her big money of books for the appropriate text. “ I’d fergotten, we were jus’tryin’t’fin’Laura a lad t’snog t’ge’her intellect off Bertram. ”

“ Where’s Peter ? ” Martha went on, looking at the sofa and armchairs by the fire where a handful of first-years had now settled in, making the most of the sixth-year boys’sudden divergence.

Blessed Virgin shrugged. “ They all wen’off oot th’portrai’golf hole aboot half an hour ago, ” she said. “ Maybe he’s skivin’off again. ”

“ Must be, ” said Martha, shaking her head. “ That boy fille so many classes I’ll be surprised if he passes this year. ”

Once Mary and Martha had taken off, Lily looked at me mischievously. “ right field, Laura, what was it that you and Mary were up to before we came over ? ”

I blushed. “ Uh & ndash ; she was trying to find me mortal to buss so I’d leave about Bertram. ”

“ That was it, ” said Lily with a smiling, her eyes flicking to Charlotte who was also smiling playfully. “ I’m certainly Charlotte and I can come up with mortal for you. Now, who have you ruled out ? ”

****

Before long we were being reminded of the final Hogsmeade visit for the year, which was scheduled for late May. We were all looking forward to getting out of the castling and enjoying the spring weather, as well as stocking up on anything we might make been running low on and checking Honeydukes for new lines. However, as the wizarding world was becoming less safe, the rules and restriction on those of us wanting to visit Hogsmeade were ever increasing, as Professor Dumbledore outlined at supper about a calendar week beforehand.

“ I regret to notify of some far security system measurement, ” he announced, “ which are becoming necessary to ensure the safety device of all students. ” We all groaned as he gave an precis of what they entailed : we could only travel in groups of three or more ; we weren’t to leave the village proper, meaning no trips to the Shrieking shack or anything else outside the confines of master street ; we weren’t to talk to anyone we didn’t already have a go at it. Half a dozen teachers were to accompany the scholar on the walking to and from the Village, and they would patrol the principal street during the day to secure that aught untoward happened.

Virgin Mary, who had planned to spend the day with Marcus, complained about the agreement more than once. They meant that couples would hold to either double-date or take other friends along in order to pass time with each other, and I suspected that a tidy few of them would enter spot like brothel keeper Puddifoot’s in groups of two pairs before separating to sit at individual tables.

The girlfriend and I & ndash ; minus Blessed Virgin & ndash ; had intended to go down as one group, and the boys from our twelvemonth as another ( Sirius having successfully evaded Elvira’s advances ), but we all converged in the Entrance Hall at the Same time before leaving and ended up as a grouping of eight. I had a suspicion that the former girls were rather relieved at this, not because they necessarily wanted the propinquity but because there was additional safety in number, and James and Sothis in particular exuded a feeling of security that we all appreciated.

Just as we reached the logic gate I noticed Bertram and his Ravenclaw squeeze & ndash ; the same one we’d caught him with behind the tapis of Andros the Invincible the late month & ndash ; heading arm in arm in the direction of dame Puddifoot’s along with a couple of other seventh-years. He must have decided to cut his losses and make the most of what pick he had left, I reasoned, and at to the lowest degree he had stopped bothering me. Sirius, who was walking future to me, noticed me hit the briefest of suspension and followed my gaze to Bertram’s retreating figure.

“ You okay ? ” he asked, looking at me sharply as we fell into step again.

“ Yeah. Yeah, I am, ” I said, and I was. I realised that I’d rather be just where I was than with Bertram and his pals, and the actualisation gave me a bit of strength. And at to the lowest degree I wouldn’t be subjected to that atrocious tea-house again.

Canicula was throwing a cruddy look in Bertram’s direction, and I noticed with some satisfaction that the older boy had suddenly sprouted a very cumbersome-looking set of antlers. I looked back at Sirius, who was putting his wand away with what appeared to be an attempt at subtlety. “ You never liked him, did you ? ” I asked.

He looked uncomfortable and even a picayune guilty. “ Ah, Laura, don’t ask me that. ”

“ Why not ? ” I asked, surprised. “ I time value your judgement. ”

He seemed pleased but still wouldn’t do my original interrogative sentence. “ Look, you’re not over him yet, so you don’t actually want to know what any of us thought of him. If we liked him you’ll be s guessing your decision, and if we didn’t you’ll want to screw why we didn’t say anything. It’s better not to ask, corporate trust me. ”

I looked at him shrewdly. There was a ‘ but’there, hanging, so I decided to ply it. “ But ? ”

He appeared even more uncomfortable and I got the mental picture he was choosing his words carefully. “ I think he’s a motherfucker for doing what he did, and I think he should receive appreciated what he had. But I also think you’re unspoiled off without him. ” He paused, as though trying to decide whether or not to retain. “ I think you deserve better. ”

“ Thanks, ” I said, thinking it over. “ You may be right. ” I wanted to orient out that not everyone had their cream of the student dead body, that some of us had to take who we could get, but that would have sounded petty. And besides, he was right, I did deserve individual who didn’t cheat on me. The dodgy bit would be finding them.

He put his arm around me and gave me a bit of a clinch, which once again was surprisingly comforting. “ That’s the spirit, ” he said. “ picking up and move on. ” His arm was still around me and I had a sudden almost sweep over itch to answer in kind, and I smiled to myself as I wondered, if I actually did it, just how many second base it would take for him to make what was happening and sprint off. As it turned out it wouldn’t have mattered, because St. James turned around from his conversation with Lily at that moment and saw us, and Canicula’arm dropped abruptly to his incline.

I looked again in the direction Bertram had disappeared in, thinking. “ It’s just & ndash ; ”

Sirius gave me another precipitous look. “ Just what ? ”

“ He was the outset person who ever told me I was beautiful, ” I said. “ Apart from family, of course. ” This had only just occurred to me and I realised it was the reason I had been feeling bereft since Bertram and I had broken up. I didn’t escape him, per se, but I missed the way he had made me palpate about myself. I wanted to feel beautiful again. Why I had said it out garish, however, I had no idea, and I was wishing I hadn’t. Why couldn’t these Twelfth day come when I was talking to Mary ? It would give been a lot less embarrassing.

Sothis made a haphazardness that sounded like he had been about to express mirth but then thought effective of it. “ Is that what’s been bothering you ? ” he asked, pushing his hair out of his oculus as he looked down at me. “’causal agency he won’t be the live soul to say that. You are beautiful. ”

I smiled briefly at him. “ Thanks, ” I said, “ but you don’t have to humour me. ”

He looked like he was about to say something again but checked himself, choosing instead to take hold of my hand and squeeze it, and dropping it straight afterwards. I wasn’t certain if I felt comforted or not, part of me very aware that he hadn’t denied that he was humouring me. We walked the rest of the way to the small town in silence.

The eight of us had been rather keen to relish the May sunshine but for some reason there was a really uncomfortable temper in the village when we got there, so to excite it off we trundled into the triad broomstick and ended up having an early lunch, accompanied by a few butterbeers and the periodic Firewhisky. Once we’d finished our feast, we left the pub and wandered out to a main street that was suspiciously deserted. The uncomfortable feel was still there and immediately the son formed a protective cordon around us, Henry James and Dog Star at the front line, and with their wands out they surveyed the surrounding surface area, trying to locate the suit of this lack of activity. Baffled at what was happening, I stayed with the girls inside the protect circle, looking around frantically to try to work it out.

The streets were so hushed it was quite eerie, and even the amulet sellers appeared to have got packed up and moved on. We couldn’t see any other Hogwarts educatee, nor any of the teachers who were supposed to be patrolling the immediate area. And then, without warning, Sirius tensed like a dog on a scent, and Henry James followed his regard to the top of the pitcher's mound.

A mob of dark figures were coming down towards the village : there appeared to be at to the lowest degree a hundred of them. They too were eerily serenity, moving silently and purposefully down the gentle slope. They appeared to be weaponless, though it was a job to narrate at that length & ndash ; they were still several hundred curtilage away. But the silence was becoming oppressive, and I felt a common cold iciness and inexplicable sensory faculty of dreadful cum over me.

“ Dementors, ” muttered James River, and I looked at him in blow, and then at the other girls. They too looked horror-struck, and Charlotte made a sudden motility to go back into the ternary Broomsticks.

Henry James had noticed. “ Yes, go, ” he said, directing us back to the pub. “ Go inside and fill up the door, and don’t let anyone out. Try to regain a instructor in there, ” he added, “ any teacher will do. ” Charlotte and Martha both dashed back across the road and into the safety of the pub and so, I saw, did putz. Lily, I noticed, was staying and, not wanting to leave her alone, I decided to stay put with her.

James looked around at Lily, who hadn’t moved and had a settle flavour in her eyes. “ Lily, please, ” he said softly, almost pleadingly. “ We want you to be safe. ” I looked at her, wondering if she realised it was probably the first off sentence he’d called her by her number one name.

If she did realise she hid it well, as there was no alteration on her face as she stood her ground. “ I’m a prefect, ” she said resolutely. “ It’s my duty to make sure enough all the students are safe. ”

“ And they will be, if they’re in the pub, ” Dog Star said reasonably, his optic and wand still trained on the approaching menace.

William James nodded. “ If you want to help, go in there and try to make sure they don’t affright. If they do, then this is going to be a entirely lot severe to treat with. ”

Lily shook her head. “ We can’t be sure as shooting they’re all in there, though, ” she said logically, watching the Dementors slowly progressing towards us. The cold pall in the air was escalating and I could feel all the happiness draining from me. “ I think I should do a straightaway CAT scan of the former shops and order anyone inside them not to come out. ”

James and Dog Star looked at each other with exasperation, then focused again on the Dementors. “ Let her, ” I said quietly. “ I’ll go too. It’ll be quicker with more than one person, and once we’re done I’ll make sure she goes into the pub. ”

“ Not you, too, Laura, ” Dog Star said, taking his eyes off the animal briefly to look at me. “ Can’t you just get to guard like we’ve asked ? Please ? ”

Remus, who too had his wand trained on the approaching mob, spoke up. “ How about I take the girls to tick all the store, ” he suggested. “ I’m a prefect too, it will depend more prescribed. Then you two can tackle this lot. ”

“ No, we need you here, ” said James. “ We need as many Patronuses as we can get, looking at the number of them. ”

“ Then I’m staying too, ” said Lily firmly, changing her mind. “ I can contrive a Patronus just as well as Remus can. ”

James sighed, still not looking anywhere but directly in front of him. “ All right, then. But name sure enough you stay behind us, approve ? Out of injury’s way. Where are those teacher ? ” he went on, clearly frustrated at their non-appearance.

Remus grabbed Lily and me and dragged us to swell behind St. James the Apostle and Sothis, who were now in fight modal value. We stood behind them, wands out, trying desperately to call back of something happy enough to evoke a Patronus in nominal head of so many Dementors.

It appeared that James and Canicula knew each former well enough to be able to guess the other’s actions without being told. They waited until the US Army of Dementors were LE than fifty yards away, and then suddenly their wands moved in unison as they bellowed “ Expecto patronum ! ” A silvery hart and a huge dog erupted from their wands, charging down the approach USA and scattering the first onset. Remus, Lily and I followed courtship, and though our Patronuses weren’t nearly as potent as James’and Sirius’had been, we still managed to dispel a few of the Dementors.

James II and Sothis had re-cast their Patronuses and the two large animals were once again careering towards the Dementors, driving even more away. There were less than a XII of the fauna left by now and the air was feeling much less compressed, much more cheerful. Looking around, I could see at to the lowest degree two dozen faces pressed up against the windowpane of the Three broom handle, watching the proceedings.

Another one shot of Patronuses from Remus, Lily and I helped circularize the remaining creatures. Again, they were much weaker than the others, and I felt my specialty draining, but it seemed like we’d broken the vertebral column of it and one more Patronus Charm could very likely eat up them off. So I couldn’t understand just why Saint James the Apostle was still looking so disquieted.

“ Get inside, will you ? ” he said almost sapless, looking around at Remus, Lily and me. “ Just to be on the safe side. ”

Just then, however, a teacher finally appeared on the scene, five minutes too late to really be of any use. It was Professor McGonagall and for once I was thrilled to see her, as she was most probably the most capable member of staff at the whole school. ( Aside from Dumbledore, of course. ) We called King James’attention to her as soon as we had spotted her.

“ McGonagall, thank goodness, ” he breathed, before belatedly realising that Remus, Lily and I were still with them, that we hadn’t yet gone to the rubber of any of the neighboring businesses. “ GET INSIDE ! ! ” he bellowed at us, “ it’s not safe yet ! There could be more ! ” He looked almost frightened and we quickly stepped inside the nearby threshold of Honeydukes. Lily, however, kept the door ajar, evidently wanting to get word as well as see what was happening.

“ What happened, Potter ? ” we heard McGonagall ask, looking around and taking in the surroundings.

“ Dementors, ” said Saint James the Apostle. “ There were over a hundred of them. I think we got rid of them all, but we don’t know who sent them. person has to have sent them, and they’d have to be pretty powerful to bear restraint of that many. ”

McGonagall nodded, her formula tense. “ And the scholar are all safe ? No one was Kissed ? ”

“ No one was Kissed that we know of. No one’s been attacked since they reached the village, we’ve made sure of that, ” said James. “ Most of the kids are in the Three Broomsticks, Martha and Charlotte know not to let them leave, and we kept an eye on the early shop class in lawsuit someone came out. Though they would experience felt the burden inside, so I can’t imagine anyone coming out by choice. ”

McGonagall looked impressed. “ Joseph Black, ” she said, “ please keep an eye out in casing any More of them show up. aid should come shortly. ” Dog Star nodded, his face resolute. “ Potter, ” she went on, “ come with me. In the absence seizure of any other members of staff, it will have to be you. We need to find who is responsible for this attack. ”

Professor McGonagall waved her scepter and sent a silvery wispy thing that looked from our aloofness to be a Patronus that hadn’t formed properly off in the direction of the schoolhouse, and then she and James walked determinedly up the hill to where the Dementors had first been seen.

Lily closed the room access of Honeydukes, her face pale. “ Where have they gone ? ” she whispered.

“ Trying to find whoever’s responsible, ” said Remus. “ They could still be out there. ”

“ But he could be & ndash ; he could be killed ! ” she said, her vocalisation no louder, her greenish eyes all-encompassing and anxious.

“ I’m pretty sure he can submit attention of himself, ” Remus reassured her. “ McGonagall wouldn’t have taken him if she didn’t recollect so. ” She looked unconvinced and started shaking uncontrollably.

“ Oh, look, ” I said, giving her a wear hug and trying to distract her. “ Dumbledore’s arrived. ”

And indeed he had & ndash ; somehow he had found out what had happened and had hurried down from the castle. Almost immediately afterwards four sensation Apparated onto the independent street, and Remus said he thought they were from the Ministry, probably Aurors. They took responsibility for the after effects of the attack and Dog Star, after a lengthy conversation with Dumbledore, came and joined us at Honeydukes.

He was visibly relieved when he saw us. “ You all okay ? ” he asked, looking searchingly at each of us in crook. We nodded, grateful it was all over. “ All rightfield, then, chocolate all cycle, ” he said, pulling out his money bag. “ We’ve all had a shock. ” And he went straight to the counter and bought at least three dozen occlusion of drinking chocolate, some of which he started breaking apart and handing around to everyone in the shop.

“ Thanks, ” I mumbled with my oral cavity wide-cut. “ But why so much ? ” I pointed at the pile of chocolates in his arms.

“ You forget, Laura, ” he said, “ there are about a C tyke in the Three broomstick who need it just as practically as you do. Moony, ” he went on, looking at Remus, “ would you heed ? I’m beat. ”

Remus nodded, a surprisingly indulgent look on his face as he took the chocolate from Sothis, who promptly collapsed onto the floor to my leftfield. “ You have a rest, Padfoot, ” he said with a smile. “ I’ll take these across to the pub. ”

Suddenly exhausted, I too sat down, and must have looked even worse than I thought because Sirius looked at me with a very concerned expression on his face. “ Don’t worry, ” he said quietly, putting an arm around me. “ They’re all gone now. It’s over. ” I nodded vaguely, still finishing my deep brown, as we watched Remus march across the street to where a number of dazed teenagers were slowly emerging from the rubber of the Three broom handle.




Author’s note : We never learned from JKR why James ended up as foreland Boy when he wasn’t a prefect, considering that would certainly be an unusual chain of events. I figured it would possess to be something pretty big, so saving half the schooltime from the Dementor’s Kiss seemed a reasonable extrapolation of that. ( Originally I wrote it as Inferi, considering we’ve had another Dementor flack already in this story, but from what’s been said about Inferi it seems they wouldn’t be out in daytime so that got canned. As were most other night Creatures & ndash ; having it fall out during the day was more limiting than I’d thought. And I just couldn’t get a Death feeder flak to work in a way I was well-chosen with. ) Anyway, I’d be concern to know what other mass think of this idea. Thanks !

29
That night all of us who had been involved in holding off the Dementors, however minor our role might accept been, were called in turn to grant the headmaster our adaptation of what had happened that day. We were told that James and Professor McGonagall never found the perpetrator, who must have Disapparated once his or her charges were dispersed, but that James and Sirius’flying thinking, and Saint James the Apostle’leadership, had almost certainly saved more than one somebody. I didn’t think any of us ( aside from James I and Sirius ) had realised the gravity of the site at the sentence, as it had always felt like it was under controller, but it was certainly drummed into us that Nox by the teacher how lucky we had been.

ma'am Pomfrey, it transpired, was also rather pleased with Dog Star, as his distribution of chocolate immediately after the issue meant that she had a much lowly bit of traumatised students to deal with, and watchword was that by way of rewarding him she was pressuring both Dumbledore and McGonagall to let him off a couple of custody he had yet to serve. He had refused reimbursement for the chocolate, though we understood this was down to pride Sir Thomas More than anything else as since he’d left his family the previous year he’d had very short gold of his own.

On the whole it ended up a pretty effective day for Gryffindor House. St. Peter the Apostle, Martha and Charlotte were each awarded ten compass point for their efforts in keeping everyone in the Three broomstick equanimity and off the streets. Remus, Lily and I received XXV level each for our office in repelling the attack. Sirius received fifty item for his part in stopping the Dementors and for providing chocolate to the students afterwards, and James sixty for not only his wandwork but also the leadership he displayed, particularly in negating the panic that undoubtedly would have ensued if he wasn’t so composed.

“ You know, Laura, ” Lily said as we left Dumbledore’s office and made our way back to the mutual way, “ I suspect that all these points probably cancel out the last half dozen or so hold and distributor point lost that James and Sirius have cost us. ”

I laughed. “ You’re probably onto something there, ” I agreed. “ I’m looking forward to seeing the hourglass tomorrow aurora, it’ll have to have topped up a funfair bit. ”

She grinned. “ Yes, I suspect you’re right, ” she said. “ I think I’m just glad it’s all over, though. I feel pretty drained after going through it again for Dumbledore. What do you think the chances are that the son have raided the kitchen for us ? ”

“ Middling to good, ” I said, thinking about it. “ And I hope they have, too. I’m starving. ”

****

Unfortunately for us, our involvement in the involvement meant that we were deluged with asking for information almost as soon as we made it back to the castle, and this only increased over the following days. As usually happens in these cases, the re-telling of effect made them seem much more impressive than they really were.

I heard one person telling anyone who would mind that Voldemort himself had been behind the attack and was now bound to come after James II and Sirius for personal revenge for preventing his taking over the village. Instead of being worried by this suggestion, upon hearing it the boys just grinned at each other and said, “ Bring it on ! ” They never were one to shrivel from a challenge.

And that wasn’t the only variation on the write up that was going around the schooltime. “ I heard that ceramist fought off a mob of Dementors AND some vampires, ” I heard a boy who looked like he might be in fifth-year saying at the Hufflepuff board during the week.

“ Don’t bury the werewolves, ” his friend corrected as they held a group of younger students spellbound. “ There were at to the lowest degree half a XII werewolves there as well. ”

“ Yeah, and he just held them off with a movie of his wand and then bound them with a mob of fervor until the Aurors got there to deal with them, ” the first off one went on. “ They’re talking about giving him an social club of Merlin because of it ! ”

I just looked at Mary and giggled as we made our way down the table and sat opposite the person in question. How anyone could be na & iuml ; ve enough to deferred payment this version was beyond me & ndash ; even first-years knew that vampires and lycanthrope didn’t come out in daylight. Though, I supposed, why let these minor details get in the way of a good recital ?

“ I just hear you’re getting an Order of pigeon hawk, ” I said conversationally to him as we sat down. “ Did you know about that ? ”

He laughed. “ Nice one, ” he said. “ Which version of the account is giving me that ? ”

“ Dementors, vampires an’werewolf, ” Madonna explained from my early side, where she had found a spot succeeding to Marcus. “ An’ye held them off wi’a ring o’fire till th’Ministry go’there. ”

James looked at Sirius, in the spot next to him, and grinned. “ Well, that is a new one, ” he admitted. “ Though if I’m not mistake, the entire moonshine isn’t due for another week or two, so I’m not quite sure what sorting of werewolves they’re talking about. ”

“ Not to name the fact that the sun was out, ” Canicula added wryly, a Federal Reserve note of exasperation in his voice.

“ Honestly, ” James I went on, shaking his head a piffling, “ the way rumours banquet at this shoal is ridiculous. Anyone would cerebrate I did the whole thing single-handedly. Let’s face it, there’s bugger all I could have done without you lot to help out. ”

This was pretty distinctive of Jesse James’attitude to the wholly thing. While he generally enjoyed the attention the events of Hogsmeade had inevitably given him, he did pass off as a great deal credit as he could to Sirius, and to a less extent to Remus, Lily and me, and by the end of the calendar week he was almost getting uncomfortable with how far the narrative had been exaggerated as it was re-told around the schoolhouse.

And I couldn’t help but poster that his posture and determination to share the calcium light had one further significance that I was sure he would be ecstatic about. As he pushed the attention aside, it was becoming clearer and clearer that Lily was starting to strike him much more seriously as a potency partner. She still thought he could be an arrogant berk, as indeed he was at times, but she had realised he was maturing and I was thinking that, the next clock time he asked her out, she’d probably say yes. His potentially saving her life was bound to have some fringe benefit, and I expected them to show up sooner rather than later.

****

After the inflammation of Hogsmeade it was almost a disgrace to get back to normality within the castling. However, exams were only a match of weeks away and, while one-sixth twelvemonth test were only really practice session for newt, they were still crucial enough for us to be worried about them. Some of the teachers let us off a bit of prep as payoff for saving Hogsmeade, but the duty assignment still piled high and to the highest degree of us were staying up past tense midnight as a matter of course trying to get Sir Thomas More alteration crammed in.

In addition, the last Quidditch match of the time of year was only a workweek away, where Gryffindor would be playing Slytherin. We had no idea how those students on the Quidditch team were managing to train for that, as well as studying for their exams, but even Saint James the Apostle ( who never appeared to meditate at all ) seemed a bit tire. The two seventh-years on the team, Anna transmitter and Marcus C. K. Ogden, were looking decidedly stressed as their NEWTs approached and the Beaters, who were both in fifth year and therefore doing their OWLs, looked worse still. Only Clarrie Trimble, charlotte’s little crony who was in fourth year, and Persephone Alderton, the third-year quester, seemed to be immune from the general panic.

pursuit in the game was higher than common because, due to the sudden inflow of stage to Gryffindor House after Hogsmeade, if we won we were in all probability to take the sign of the zodiac Cup as well as the Quidditch Cup if the victory was by more than XC compass point. If Slytherin won, or we won by less than 90, then Slytherin would exact the Quidditch Cup, and a defeat would also have in mind Ravenclaw would get the theatre Cup. At least, this is what I was told & ndash ; I’d given up working out all the substitution and combination and so relied on others to sour out all the hypothesis.

There was also a heightened desire for triumph from Saint James, because the Slytherin Seeker was Sirius’little comrade genus Regulus. Sirius took majuscule pleasure in Gryffindor whipping Slytherin for anything, and he was particularly song in his bread and butter of the Quidditch team when they were up against his comrade, knowing the news would get back to his parents.

The Quidditch biz had the shoal in gamy sprightliness. Even those Houses not involved in the catch were looking forward to a distraction from the upcoming exams, and there was also a desire from all early Houses that Slytherin not win the Cup. We Gryffindors who weren’t on the team made a point of forming protective cordons around those who were, as random Slytherins had taken to hexing them in the corridors in an attempt to sabotage our chances. On Midweek, for lesson, Severus Snape took his opportunity in Potions to conjure up a swarm of WASP and broadcast them to lash out James when Professor Slughorn’s back was turned, though this of course may not get had anything to do with Quidditch.

“ expression at that, ” Lily whispered as the wasp crossed the keep, buzzing angrily as they went. “ Why does he keep doing that sort of affair ? ” She shot a surprisingly muddied smell in Snape’s steering.

“ You really demand to ask ? ” I whispered back. “ They hate each other. The Quidditch match is probably just an excuse. ”

Lily just nodded as we watched Saint James the Apostle, who appeared competely nonplussed, Vanish the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant quickly before casting a Shield Charm between himself and Severus. He had barely even looked up from his veritaserum to vagabond the piece before turning back to his caldron, though I was sure I saw his eye scud very quickly towards Lily in the procedure.

“ You know, ” Lily whispered with obvious appreciation, either ignoring or not having noticed him watching her, “ I would have thought St. James would let retaliated more than that. Maybe he’s growing up. ”

Or maybe he’s just growing on you, I thought, but I decided not to say that. Instead I glanced at professor Slughorn, who had been helping Dione Turpin with her potion and didn’t even come along to be cognizant anything had happened. Then again, both James and Snape were members of the Slug social club, so it was always possible that he had decided to cut the hex so he wouldn’t have to punish either of them.

As for James not retaliating, however, I did card that Severus appeared to be suffering from a Twitchy Ears Hex as we left the keep after form. And I decided not to point that out to Lily.

There was another unfortunate incident outside the magical spell schoolroom the pursuit day when Persephone Alderton was hit with an Insect hex and scuttled around the story for quarter of an hr before Professor Flitwick could actually hit her with the appropriate anti-jinx. Wilkes from Slytherin was suspected, as he had been passing at the prison term, but because the tour had been non-verbal no one could say for sure.

In any case, by forming our defensive barriers and casting the casual Shield magical spell around the team members, we managed to get to Sat morning without any encourage incidents, and the seven Gryffindors who walked out onto the Quidditch delivery for the get-go of the game were all definitely in the Saame telephone number of pieces and the Lapplander precondition as they had started the week.

The eight remaining sixth-years clambered into one of the stands took two stage set of four bottom, one behind the former. I had tried to follow Sothis unobtrusively in an effort to keep close so I would ingest an excuse to sit adjacent to him when we found our office, but then noticed with a start that Charlotte was doing the same with Remus. I hoped fervently that I wasn’t as blatant as she was, I couldn’t abide the fallout : in my mind’s eye I imagined Lily’s large-hearted looks and Martha trying not to laugh. In any case, it was too tardily to do anything about the seating arrangements without being obvious, so I decided to travel along the master copy design and just enjoy the equal.

Not long after we sat down, though ( me in between Mary and Sirius in the figurehead row ), Sirius leaned in very close to my ear. “ Uh, Laura, do you mind if we swap spot ? ”

I looked at him, surprised. That would put me on the border of the mathematical group and him succeeding to Mary, who had Lily on her other side. “ Why ? ”

He just jerked his drumhead towards his other face, and I saw that the place there had been filled by the two Hufflepuff fille who had been in our detention way back before Christmas, both of them squeezing into a blot better suited for one so they could be next to Dog Star Black. I’d wondered why we all had to agitate down a little. “ Oh, ” I said. “ Yeah, sure. ”

We stood up and awkwardly swapped bum, me very aware of just how close we were. Not that there was a lot of room to manoeuvre, but it was a trivial laborious to keep my assiduity, let alone my counterbalance, when I was pressed up against him like that. And, to my horror, it seemed like he realised just how practically it was affecting me, as he put a hand on my back to steady me. Fortunately we managed to change places before I tumbled headfirst down the grandstand, though I’m sure as shooting I was starting to resemble a Quaffle as I finally sat down. It was with a sinking heart that I was discovering that the potential drop for him turning me into a quivering wreck was increasing by the day, and I was starting to get a very awful mistrust that snapping out of it wouldn’t be nearly as unsubdivided for me as it had seemed to be for Blessed Virgin with James River.

“ Thanks for that, ” he muttered, leaning forward and resting his elbow joint on his genu so his articulatio humeri wouldn’t be so cramped in the minute quad he was occupying, and to my great rest period ignoring my soreness. “ She was rubbing up against my leg. It was a bit uncomfortable. ”

“ Right, ” I said, just as quietly. “ Though, to be clean, there’s not much room. Maybe she wasn’t doing it deliberately. ” After all, my leg was in touch with his, and it certainly wasn’t deliberate on my part. Rather pleasant, yes, and I certainly wasn’t complaining, but not deliberate.

“ wellspring, yes, that’s certainly possible, ” he agreed, “ but if I have to have mortal’s leg up against mine, I’d rather it … ” He trailed off, a rather uncomfortable expression on his face.

“ If it was person you actually don’t mind being around, ” I finished for him. “ Yeah, I can realize that. ”

He just nodded, looking somewhat relieved. I hadn’t realised just how much the fan nine got to him sometimes, though it had to be a bit wearing. Especially when he gave them no boost whatsoever. In any event he was saved from saying anything more about it, as ma'am Hooch blew the whistling to start up the secret plan.

As always it was fast and angered, with fuzz of red and green chasing each other through the air. James, on his new Nimbus Fifteen century, was particularly speedy and it was almost impossible to see his arm action as he hurled the Quaffle past the Slytherin keeper and through the hoops. Clarrie, small and light, dodged Bludgers with ease as he passed off to Anna vector, who tapped it straight back to him as he flew past times. Almost a blur, he caught it and tossed it through the left basketball hoop all in one movement. With the following action having similar results, after just five minutes Slytherin were on the roofy with a shortfall of seventy points to ten. An telling Woollongong shift from James LE than ten secondment later meant it moved up eighty to ten, and an Anna Vector feint shortly afterwards pushed it up another ten full stop.

The Virgin and Lily, sitting in our row next to Sirius, had formed an unofficial girlfriend’baseball club, with Mary watching Marcus’every relocation on the auction pitch and Lily King James’. It was irrelevant that Lily and James weren’t actually going out, as we could all see that it was coming & ndash ; the only question was whether it would materialise before the summer holidays or after them. She and The Virgin were holding each former’s arms tightly as they watched their respective love interests dodge, defend, smash, throw and score.

It was half an hour later and with the scores at two hundred and fifty to one hundred and thirty when we first noticed the inkling of gold that was the Snitch. Unfortunately, genus Regulus inkiness appeared to birth spotted it before Persephone did, as he hurtled towards a post just above the left end hoop for Slytherin. On the advantageously racing broom money could buy, he looked sure to get it first. Fortunately for Gryffindor, our Beater Fin Quigley found an obliging Bludger at just the mighty bit, and thumped it intemperate at the spot genus Regulus’hand was about to be. inter-group communication was made, and genus Regulus faltered just long enough to have the snitcher fly away again out of sight. Had he got the sneaker, with the hundred and fifty dollar bill points it brought, Slytherin would hold won both the game and the Cup.

Of course, being a lightlessness, Regulus wasn’t about to let a broken handwriting stop him from winning the Quidditch Cup for his team, as well as taking the House Cup from his ratter buddy. He glared at Fin and repositioned himself on the broom so that he would be capable to steer with his knees the next clock time the stoolpigeon showed itself, which would enable him to use his non-preferred but entire left hand to see it. Dog Star groaned.

“ Too proud for his own good, ” he muttered to me, just tacky enough for me to hear over the commentary. “ He should just cut his losses and get that hand fixed. ”

“ They’d have to throw overboard, ” I pointed out. “ They don’t have a reserve Seeker. And what Slytherin would desert the opportunity to read Gryffindor off the top of the pile ? ”

He paused for a while as though considering what I’d said. “ Particularly him, ” he agreed eventually. “ He’d recede an opportunity to gloat at me. ”

I stole a coup d'oeil at him. I was having difficulty understanding exactly what the two buddy’family relationship was. Sometimes they appeared to be at constant bonehead, exchanging acrid onset and leaving no stone unturned in their efforts to outdo the former, and other clock time I noticed a fondness and respect there and a reluctance to bruise or offend each other. It seemed to be a perpetual contradiction and I wasn’t quite certain which extreme it was at now.

Another hush fell over the crowd and we turned our attention back to the plot. This time it was Persephone who had spotted the Snitch. Regulus, just behind her and on a very much faster broom, was struggling to control it properly with only one skillful deal and while normally he would have been able to easily traverse past her and pull together up the small halcyon Ball, this clock time he just wasn’t able-bodied to get in the right spot. Persephone, still in front, was probably incognizant of what was happening behind her, and grabbed the Snitch easily as it hovered about two hundred invertebrate foot above the ground not far from the grandstand we were sitting in.

The stands erupted as sunshine and pennywhistle came from all nook except, of class, the Slytherin contingent behind their finish & ndash ; Gryffindor had won four hundred and sixty points to one hundred and eighty, thereby securing both the Quidditch and firm cupful, unless for some reason individual lost over a one C points between now and the end of exams. ( And James and Dog Star, out of all Gryffindors the most in all likelihood to do something that had the potential for losing that many gunpoint, were being held in such high heed by the senior phallus of stave at that point that it looked very improbable. ) The girlfriend’club was rhapsodic & ndash ; Marcus had let in just eighteen goals, and James had scored eleven & ndash ; and everyone stood up and started hugging each former in excitement. When it came to hugging Sirius, though, I noticed an cumbersomeness in the action, though whether it came from me or from him I couldn’t have said. In any grammatical case, we seemed to hold on to each early for a little prospicient than essential, trying to stimulate off the discomfort I was indisputable we both felt.

****

The party in the Gryffindor commons room that night was more raucous and high-spirited than any I could remember. Remus and James disappeared for a trance and reappeared with cases of butterbeer, and Canicula and Peter similarly showed up with trays of food from the kitchens. I admit to feeling a fiddling smug that I knew exactly how they got all of these, having been to the kitchens with Dog Star and also seen that amazing map they had written. It seemed the whole House had decided to unite in and Anna Vector was doing laps of the common room, carrying the Quidditch Cup around over her heading, the butterbeer it had been filled with sloshing over the edges and dripping onto her robe.

“ trey sunniness for Gryffindor ! ” someone yelled from somewhere near the window, and the resultant auditory sensation should take been nearly enough to lift the roof off the common room, as Anna, James, Marcus, Clarrie and the rest of the team found themselves forced into the middle of the way amid turbulent clapping and almost forcefed butterbeer and anything else that multitude may have managed to smuggle in.

The company went well into the Nox, and as expected people started pairing off after a while. Virgin Mary and Marcus found the closest proximity to a secluded box that they could and spend respective hour ‘ getting to know’each other punter, and Martha was doing likewise with Duncan Abercrombie from one-seventh twelvemonth, who had been sitting next to her in the grandstand during the game. I understood that Peter had been on her other side so she had welcomed the misdirection Duncan had provided. I had been half expecting Lily and James to pair up that night as well, but she obviously wasn’t quite ready for that yet, though she spent a tidy spell early on watching him through her fuzz, thinking that no one realised what she was doing.

I spent much of the dark with charlotte who, even though she still denied that she liked Remus, spent a lot of sentence talking about him, how he looked, whether he was well, and how he was behaving towards her. Unfortunately, however, that wasn’t the alone thing she noticed.

“ What’s faulty with Sothis ? ” she asked about halfway through the dark. “ It’s almost like he’s avoiding us. Have you upset him or something ? ”

I kept my human face as impassive as potential. The fuss was that she was right, he did look to be avoiding us. Whenever we moved in his counseling he hurriedly took off someplace else so our paths wouldn’t hybridizing, and even when he’d been at the bar he would go away as we approached rather than get us our boozing. I didn’t have a clew what I’d done & ndash ; if it was to do with me in the beginning place & ndash ; and it was rather unsettle.

“ I have no estimate, ” I said quite honestly. “ Maybe it’s got nothing to do with us at all, it just seems that way. ”

She looked at him shrewdly, even taking off her chicken feed and cleaning them before putting them back on and watching him again, and shook her head. “ No, I think it’s to do with us. And I’ve barely had anything to do with him lately, so it’d have to be you. Are you surely you haven’t said anything to offend him ? ”

I wracked my mind trying to intend of anything it could be, going over every conversation we’d had in the previous few days, but nothing stood out. The only matter I could imagine of that might possibly be right was that he had guessed how I felt about him and was trying to put me off gently & ndash ; but there was no way known I was going to say that out loud. Charlotte and I were getting reasonably close, but we definitely weren’t that close. Admissions like that were strictly reserved for Mary’s ears only.

Meanwhile Lily and James started getting tea cozy by the fervency, still not touching each former but actually having a conversation that went for longer than five mo and didn’t involve any scepter being drawn, which we thought might suffer been a disk as far as they were concerned. It looked like James was determined not to mess it up this time, and was letting things run their row without trying any bad cartridge assembly line or asking her out at inopportune instant, and Lily appeared prepared to go with the menstruum.

By the clip the company wound up at about three in the cockcrow, half the multitude there had found a special someone to share the evening with and were snogging in various niche of the uncouth way. Charlotte and I, however, were both just as undivided as we had been when the night started, and Lily and James were still sitting by the fire, talking. Sirius had disappeared up the boy’staircase not long after midnight and hadn’t reappeared, and Remus and Peter were sitting on the trading floor with a span of fourth-years, chatting away amiably without paying the slightest attention to what was going on around them while Virgin Mary’s cat played with a passel of butterbeer corks in the midsection of their lot. Charlotte and I looked at each former and, agreeing that it was time for bed, picked our way over the squashed-in nutrient and smashed bottle that littered the floor to the girls’staircase, pitying the theater elves who would let to clean up the chaos before the sun rose.




Author’s preeminence : I feel like this chapter needs more dialogue to micturate it show better, but I just couldn’t get any more in there in a way that I was happy with. And in order to keep the story’s run going right I had to break it up here so adding view wasn’t really an option. So I just hope you will forgive me this one transgression and bear with me for the side by side chapter, which does fall a niggling better.


30
Once the Quidditch Cup had been settled, we really had cipher to take our creative thinker off the upcoming examination. Every dispense with minute of arc was spent with our noses in respective school text or re-reading our greenback and essays from the yr, as we all frantically tried to go out what we were most in all likelihood going to be tested on. It was a phrenetic metre and there never seemed to be enough hours in the day to get everything done. In fact, Martha’s idea the former year of breaking into the Ministry to steal a few time-turners had never sounded so appealing.

Like all lady friend with what was & ndash ; to my horror & ndash ; developing into an increasingly ridiculous obsession, I welcomed this prison term as it meant I barely had a save moment to think about Sirius. That is, I saw him, of course of instruction, it would be impossible not to when we had almost all the Saame classes and shared the common room as a homework and revisal infinite, but if I wanted to pass sixth year then I really couldn’t waste matter fourth dimension watching him over my Potions textbook or pretending to stare absently at the flak ( approve, register that as staring at individual who was usually in close neighbourhood to the fire ) when I was trying to think of a trance. It worked as an casual distraction & ndash ; especially since he’d stopped avoiding me, with me none the wiser as to what that had been about in the initiative berth & ndash ; but getting my revise done was important enough to give me quite enough to be getting on with.

Finally the exams themselves began. kickoff up was antediluvian rune, which was made more difficult when I made a right on hash of my first attack at rune displacement. Fortunately I realised my error and was capable to unmake most of the damage, though it did allow for me feeling more than a little flustered and it meant I didn’t do as well for the rest of the test as I might have got hoped. I was pretty sure I hadn’t botched it badly enough to score me reprize sixth-year Runes, but it was still not the consequence I was looking for. Why did Fehu and Ansuz have to search so similar anyway ?

“ Don’t worry about it, ” Remus said as I fretted to him as we left the large classroom being utilised for one-sixth year exams after it had finished. “ If that’s the worst affair you’ve done today, you’ll get through fine. ”

“ But it changed the whole meaning of the text, ” I pointed out. “ I had it talking about money instead of communication. I pretty much had to re-write my entirely analysis. ”

“ fountainhead, it was only one essay out of four, ” Remus said placatingly. “ It could induce been risky. You could make confused Eihwaz and Inguz, those are opponent so you would have been in all sorts of trouble. ”

“ Thank goodness we don’t have anything this afternoon, ” I muttered, more worked up about it all than I wanted to admit. “ I think I need a stiff drink before I get on with anything else. ”

Remus grinned. “ If you’re for sure about that, I’m sure the guy wire can come up with something for you, ” he said airily. “ What would you prefer, Firewhisky, redcurrant rum or elderflower wine ? Or I’m sure Padfoot could lay his hands on some mead, if you’d rather that. ”

I cracked a smile for the first off time since leaving the exam, and it wasn’t just from hearing Canicula’nickname. “ Hmm … well I did say a stiff drink, didn’t I ? So that’d be Firewhisky or rum. You know, I might just take you up on that. ”

I was only half joking. A buckram drink would also serve to arrive at me to a greater extent relaxed around Sirius, who I was bound to see sometime during the afternoon considering we both had it off and it was becoming Sir Thomas More and more unwashed for the sixth-year Gryffindors to converge in the same place on these occasions. And Remus made sure of it at the lunch mesa, when he cocked an eyebrow at Saint James the Apostle, Sirius and Peter when they arrived and seated themselves opposite us.

“ How did the exam go ? ” Sirius asked carelessly as he found a scale and piled it high up with joint crybaby and vegetable.

I just rolled my eyes and let Remus respond, which in hindsight was probably a mistake. “ Not too bad, but Laura had a bit of a shocker. ”

“ Mistranslation, ” I explained when they all looked at me quizzically. “ Two runes that look similar but mean completely different things. I had to re-write my solid essay. ”

“ Not fun in an test, ” Peter said sympathetically. I looked at him and smiled & ndash ; for soul who had been pretty much terrified of girls for the by six old age, he was getting Thomas More and Sir Thomas More self-confident. He might even chance himself a girlfriend before 7th yr was out.

“ She got a bit worked up about it, ” Remus went on, ignoring the fact that I was starting to get increasingly embarrassed, probably due more to who was sitting directly opposite me than anything else. “ Said something about needing a fuddled crapulence before she gets on with anything this afternoon. ” And I could hold sworn I saw him wink across the table as he said it.

“ Really ? ” asked Henry James, looking at me in surprise. “ You ? Well, not what I was expecting, but & ndash ; ”

Sirius cut him off. “ No, she can be a bit of a unwarranted one, Laura can. I caught her months ago sneaking into the common room at two in the aurora after a night on the piss. ”

I threw him a looking & ndash ; he may suffer been gorgeous but I wasn’t about to let him get away with that. “ That’s rather an exaggeration, don’t you think ? I had a few glasses because it was my natal day, that’s all. ”

“ And could barely take the air up the stairs afterwards, ” Sothis pointed out, a blanket smile on his face. “ I heard someone had to break into Sluggy’s stores the next morning and slip some Sobering resolution so you could make it to class. ”

That shut me up : I had no intention of getting Lily into trouble. Besides, I suspected Saint James the Apostle would probably line up that write up a bit of a turn-on ( I’d noticed that Lily breaking the principle usually got him a picayune bit & ndash ; er & ndash ; enthusiastic ), and I figured that he already fancied her enough without me adding any ammunition to his fantasies.

“ So, do you still need that drink ? ” King James asked easily, also ignoring my increasing discomfort. “ We’ve got a few thing stashed away if you want something. Whisky, rum, wine-coloured … ”

I shook my head. “ No, I’ve calmed down now. Besides, I don’t think that alcohol would be a unspoilt idea when I’m supposed to be revising for Transfiguration. That human Transfiguration stuff is difficult enough even when I’ve got full control of my facilities. ”

Saint James the Apostle looked at me doubtfully. “ Sounds to me like you’re making alibi, ” he said. “ You know we’d be happy to help you out if you need a hand, too. ” He turned towards Sirius. “ You don’t have anything on this good afternoon, do you, Padfoot ? ”

I froze momentarily. An good afternoon alone with Sothis while he tutored me in metamorphosis ? While I couldn’t deny I would most probably enjoy it immensely, there was always the very real theory that I’d do something that would let on how I felt about him and that was the shoemaker's last thing I wanted. And I’d be likely to be so distract that I wouldn’t learn anything anyway. Especially with the way he looked that day, which had to be more striking than usual ? Or maybe I was just noticing it more. As a result, even while Sirius was confirming James’pass of assistance, I was coming up with self-justification as to why it wouldn’t be necessary.

“ No, thanks anyway, but I’ll be fine, ” I said, hopefully sounding more sure of myself than I felt.

Sirius looked surprised and even a little let down, as though he had been looking forward to showing off how much he knew to a lesser someone such as me. “ I thought you were having trouble ? ”

“ I’m fine, ” I repeated. “ Right as pelting. Really. ”

“ If you’re sure, ” St. James the Apostle said doubtfully, looking shrewdly at me in a way I rather didn’t like. “ fountainhead, drink, then ? ”

It was almost like he was making up reasons for me to spend the afternoon with them, and I wasn’t sure that would be a upright idea. And I definitely didn’t know why Remus seemed to be finding the unit matter so amusing, but he definitely was & ndash ; I could sense the workbench we shared shaking a little as he tried not to express joy. In any typesetter's case, I shook my pass once more. “ I just remembered, I have to cope with The Virgin this afternoon, ” I invented quickly. “ But thanks anyway. ”

“ If you’re sure, ” James said again, his eyebrows hovering somewhere near his hairline. “ Though I don’t know why you’re making excuses, it’s not like we’re going to force it down your pharynx if you don’t want any. Forced use of goods and services of anything isn’t something Dumbledore takes lightly. ”

“ And we’ve got a fairly trade good estimation of what he takes lightly and what he doesn’t, ” Sirius added, stating the obvious, though it occurred to me that it mustn’t have clicked with him yet that spiking people’s drinks at parties probably fell into that category. “ If not, we probably wouldn’t have made it to the end of sixth year. ”

tool looked storm. “ What do you think, Padfoot ? ” he asked, confusion all over his face as he gnawed at a chicken wing.

Sirius grinned conspiratorially at me and rolled his oculus. Great, that helped my mental State Department enormously. What was I saying about him turning me into a quivering shipwreck ? Fortunately I was saved from actually speaking by Remus, who took it upon himself to ( once again ) infract off a potential argument.

“ He meant we haven’t been kicked out yet, ” he said gently, throwing a warning look at Sirius in the process. “ We know where to draw the line. ”

“ But you went right over that line finally year, ” peter said earnestly, his eyes on Sirius. “ Even Dumbledore said he couldn’t believe you would run a risk Moo- ”

“ So, Laura, you definitely don’t want that drink ? ” St. James the Apostle asked loudly, cutting putz off and giving him a surprisingly dirty flavor as he did so. “ It might settle you down a bit for that revision if you’re still worked up about this morning. ”

I had no idea what Saint Peter had said that had made James sense the need to shut him up like that, but I couldn’t refuse that the vibe at the table had become considerably more uncomfortable since he’d said it. In an attempt to lighten things up again, I decided to accord with James.

“ Yeah, why not, ” I said. “ Just let me finish my luncheon first so it’s not on an empty-bellied stomach. ”

Saint James the Apostle looked relieved. The temper hadn’t lightened enough for me to make bold glance at any of the others just yet, but it was illuminate that the alteration of subject was welcomed by everyone. Except perhaps Peter, who had brought up whatever it was in the world-class place and in all likelihood, like me, wasn’t entirely sure why what he’d said had been so controversial.

****

Despite turning down Dog Star’offer of teaching in August 6, I made it through the exam with less difficulty as I had imagined, even the theory part which was so broad of complicated prescript and hypothesis that I was sure even the son would have had difficulty getting their pass around it all. In any showcase I was pretty sure I’d done enough to glide by and was feeling much more confident in my own abilities.

That Nox, as Madonna studied for the Herbology exam on Wednesday, I was sitting by myself in the vulgar room playing a few troll of Muggle longanimity with a deck of cards of Self-Shuffling playing Cards. Lily was out on patrol with Remus, Martha was in a ling cupboard somewhere with Duncan, charlotte was reading her Divination schoolbook, and Madonna was at our pet table by the window, still up to her auricle in what were essentially gardening texts. I’d finished revising and found that the solitary plot helped illuminate my head, especially when it was too tardily for me to need a flying drive around the Quidditch pitch.

“ Stuck again, ” I muttered to myself, packing up the cards into one pile where they dutifully re-shuffled themselves. I had started on a new game when a shadow came between me and the spark. I looked up to see James hovering by my table.

“ Laura, have you seen & ndash ; oh, what’s that you’re doing ? ” he asked, clearly distracted by the menu set out on the tabular array in front line of me.

“ Muggle Patience, ” I said. “ It helps quieten me down before exams. ”

“ Ooh, would Lily know that game ? ” I had to smile at his enthusiasm. St. James the Apostle even took NEWT-level Muggle Studies in an effort to learn more about the world Lily had come from.

“ I’d say so, most Muggles know it. Whether they bother with it or not is another subject, ” I said lightly.

“ So how do you play it ? ”

I sighed. “ How about I show you another time, ” I suggested, missing my quiet meter. “ Anyway, that’s not why you came over here, is it ? ”

His case dropped. “ Oh yeah. Have you seen Padfoot ? ”

Just who I wanted to speak about. Sirius. It would be a test to discuss him with St. James the Apostle of all citizenry without making a mark of myself, so I just said the 1st thing that came into my forefront, which ended up being rather flippant. “ wealthy person you looked down the back of the sofa ? I often find mixed-up things down there. You know, odd socks, stray Sickles, missing just friend … ”

James laughed. “ And that of path is why, ” he said with a smile. I looked at him, confused & ndash ; what on dry land did that mean ? King James I went on, ignoring my quizzical expression and clearly deciding to take on along. “ Yeah, I did try there, but there wasn’t a good deal room once we pulled Wormtail out from underneath a cushion. ”

“ Well, I haven’t seen him for a while, ” I said, just wanting to get back to my Patience. After all, I played it to calm down and settle my brass and talking about Sothis was rather counterproductive there. I also thought I might get this game out, it had started well, but I decided that I really should be polite. “ Should I accept ? ”

“ I don’t know where he’s gone, ” he said, not answering my interrogation. “ And he’s got the map. Normally he’s comfortable to encounter, you just seem for & ndash ; ” He stopped, checking himself, but I could finish that conviction myself & ndash ; ‘ the bunch of girls’& ndash ; and I wasn’t really in the mood to wreak along with boosting their egos. Particularly when it concerned Sirius and the extent of my contender, which I really didn’t like thinking about.

“ Look, James, ” I said with a touch modality of aggravation, “ just because I’m female doesn’t think of I automatically know where Sothis is. Not every girl is so hung up on him that they keep tab on his whereabouts. ” While technically true it wasn’t the case with me, of course, but I’d never tell James that. I had seen a breathless senior passing a greenback to Sirius earlier in the night, and he’d read it and disappeared out the portrayal hole without a word to anyone.

James’face was a combination of mix-up and surprise. “ But that wasn’t what I meant, ” he said. “ I just thought … oh, forget it. ” He turned and traipsed back to the armchairs by the ardor where the early male child were perched.

His interrogative was answered a minute or two later, however, when the portrayal hole opened and Sirius climbed in, his face lacuna with that closed looking at that he got when something was bothering him.

“ Padfoot ! ” came the cry from the fireside. “ Where have you been, mate ? ”

I watched with interest over my identity card as Sirius joined the throng by the fervour. “ Went to see McGonagall, ” he said noncommittally, looking absently around the way. He caught my eye and I looked back at my card, embarrassed to let been take shape listening in on their conversation.

“ Not another detention ? ” came Simon Peter’s part, easy to recognise as it was somewhat gamey and squeakier than those of the other three.

“ No, no, nothing like that, ” Canicula answered wearily. I wondered why his friends were pushing it when he so obviously didn’t want to discuss whatever it was. “ I think I’ll go to bed, ” he said finally, ignoring the quiet around him.

Through my tomentum I saw him glance my way again as he made his way through the unwashed room to the boys’stairs, and I shuddered involuntarily. There were all sorting of things he could accept read into my small display of eavesdropping, not all of them incorrect, and I hoped sincerely that I hadn’t just killed off what fledgling friendship we might accept had.

****

We had our practical exam in the dayspring, with the theory to espouse that afternoon. I thought that I got through the practical part pretty well, having ( among early things ) successfully identified an Alihotsy and pruned a Satan’s Snare without being strangled. Feeling confident, I was guided with Greta Catchlove out of the exam room and into a small schoolroom nearby where we were to await until everyone had finished, where inside waited several other students who had also completed the morning’s tasks.

Most of them were sitting around in groups testing each other for that afternoon’s theory examination, and I heard Hector Bole reciting the leaning of flesh-eating trees to himself. Sitting in the quoin looking bored & ndash ; but handsome & ndash ; was Sothis. I realised that it would see suspicious if I ignored him so, taking a deep breathing place to get my nerve up, I went to join him.

“ How’d you go ? ” I asked as I sat down next to him, leaning back against the rampart so I didn’t have to look directly at him. After all, there was less opportunity I would embarrass myself that way.

“ Brilliant, of course, ” he said unconcernedly, raking his fingerbreadth through his hair. “ How about you ? ”

“ Definitely a pas, ” I replied. “ Probably an E, hopefully an O, though it depends on this afternoon, obviously. ” I paused for a min, wondering if I should say anything about the old evening.

“ Look, about in conclusion dark in the green room, ” I said finally. “ I didn’t mean to hear in or anything. James was just being pretty loud. ”

He looked surprised, clearly racking his brain to crop out what I was on about. “ Don’t worry about it, ” he said after a moment. “ Everyone hears everything in the mutual elbow room, I didn’t think you were eavesdropping or anything. ” I sighed inwardly, immensely relieved. He continued. “ I’d just had a bit of bad news, that’s all. ”

I let that sit for a piece as Gertie Cresswell and Caradoc Dearborn came into the room, their exams obviously over as well. “ wellspring, if you want to talk about it, I’m here, ” I said quietly. “ If you don’t, that’s fine too. ” I noticed his heart had narrowed so I wasn’t expecting him to talk, but since we were supposed to be friends I felt honour-bound to proffer him the option.

He hesitated, looking at me out of the quoin of his eye and apparently pondering the idea. “ My uncle died, ” he said eventually. “ One of the only people in my family I actually liked. And no one bothered to tell me. ”

Normally I would have asked whether it was connected with the destruction eater but with the Blacks I suspected that was unlikely. In any pillowcase it wasn’t pleasant news. I looked at him sympathetically and had a unassailable impulse to snap up his paw and squeeze it. “ That’s awful, ” I said, successfully mastering the whim. “ Was it sudden ? ”

He laughed bitterly, his grey center steely. “ I wouldn’t know. I haven’t seen him since I left two Christmases ago. ” He paused again. “ They told Reg, he went to the funeral and everything, and they didn’t tell me. And Reg didn’t tell me either, the git. ”

“ You’re joking, ” I said. I knew Sirius had a mixed kinship with his brother, but not telling him about a death in the family line seemed a lilliputian low even for Regulus.

“ Following orders, I don’t doubt, ” Sirius fuss. “ Anyway, I only found out because apparently he left me some atomic number 79. That would have gone down well, ” he added cynically, “ aiding the prodigal son. full thing he’s already dead or they would have disowned him, too. ”

“ So that’s why you had to see McGonagall ? ” I guessed. “ To sieve out what’s in his will ? ”

“ Yep, that’s right, ” he said, suddenly more business-like. “ That’s the only good affair to occur out of it. I can afford to get a lieu of my own now. ” He smiled wryly.

“ I thought you were living with Saint James, ” I said. “ That not working out ? ”

“ wellspring, that’s not really the decimal point, ” he said. “ prodigal son or not, whoever heard of a Joseph Black keep off Jacob's ladder ? I appreciate it and everything, but I’m not exactly comfy with it. ”

“ Ah, the Black family pride, ” I said airily, trying to cover my surprise that he was even discussing this sort of thing with me in the first blank space. “ I thought I’d heard a rumour about that at some point. ”

He looked at me and smiled suddenly, his goodness humour seemingly restored. “ Something like that. ” He paused for a moment, watching me. “ Thanks, Laura, ” he said finally, smiling again. “ I do feel better. ”

I was saved from responding by the door to the Great Hall opening again, revealing Lily along with Maggie Flint from Slytherin. Lily beamed at us and came over to join us, the conversation turning to more workaday matter.

****

The next day was a day off for pretty much all of sixth year & ndash ; for some reason the History of Magic examination had been scheduled for the afternoon and cypher at all in the morning. As practically no one was still taking chronicle of illusion, we all saw it as a time to prep ourselves for the defense exams the following day. At least, nigh of us did, though we did decide to pee the almost of the June sunshine by doing our revision outside on the banks of the inglorious lake.

Even though it was a weekday, the fact that we had no exams at all meant that we felt no compulsion to don our schooltime robe, and instead the missy and I wandered down to the lawn in denim and t-shirts, which as always were far more comfortable. It was a decidedly agreeable way to spend the afternoon, lying on my stomach underneath the beech tree, a quill tucked behind my ear and my Defence text edition open in figurehead of me as the girls and I tested each former on curses and counter-curses and practiced our Patronuses.

The son weren’t far away, dressed pretty practically as we were and throwing a Quaffle they had obviously procured from the schooling supplies somehow to each former, James regularly looking furtively over his berm to see if Lily had seen his up-to-the-minute pass or catch. He was obviously the best of the four which was hardly surprising considering his years on the menage Quidditch squad, but Sothis and Remus were also holding their own rather nicely, Remus in particular impressing me with a yoke of prominent takes that I wouldn’t have thought him adequate to of. Only Saint Peter the Apostle, as usual sorely lacking in talent the others had in spades, regularly dropped arrest or missed the Quaffle entirely, and his throws generally went rather wide of the someone he was aiming at.

We were well into the afternoon when charlotte suddenly stopped mid-sentence while she was trying to narrate the difference between a curse and a hex, and we all followed her gaze to the boy’plot. “ Look at that, would you, ” she muttered underneath her breath.

We didn’t need telling twice. The sun had come out and, obviously feeling the heat, the male child started taking their shirts off, so all thought of Defence revision disappeared abruptly as we enjoyed the spectacle. Though soon enough Mary had torn her eyes from Saint James the Apostle, Sothis and Remus ( particularly Henry James, I suspected ) and was struggling to suppress a giggle.

“ poor lad, ” she said quietly, her eyes on Saint Peter. “ Hoo can he hope t’live up t’th’ithers ? Dae ye think he’d be too bruise if we asked him nicely t’put th’shirt endorse on ? ”

She was right : Peter looked much better covered up. The other three, however, were another matter entirely & ndash ; even Remus, though he did have some cicatrice across his abdominal cavity that I was surprise Madam Pomfrey hadn’t been able to polish off & ndash ; and I was certainly they were enjoying the care they were getting from just about everyone in the vicinity.

“ Do you think we should get a petition organised ? ” Lily asked mischievously, her eyes darting to dick only briefly before they returned to King James, who from the grin on his case had to be fully cognisant he had her almost exclusive care.

“ Brilliant idea, Lils, ” Martha agreed. “ Here, give me your shaft, will you, I’ll be the first name on it. ”

By this point I was only vaguely taking their conversation in. study ? What study ? I was too meddlesome drooling ( unfortunately I mean that literally ) to concentrate on anything as complicated as Defence, and Mary kicked me more than once as I faltered when trying to recount diverse definitions and counter-curses. To recount the truth, when Sothis had taken his shirt off in the maiden office my lip had dropped open in awe & ndash ; some thing looked so near they just shouldn’t be shown. It was far too much of a tantalization, flaunting it like that, particularly when I knew he was beyond my compass.

In fact, the only affair that stopped me from giving up my revision entirely and just watching them was the fact that soon enough my eye had caught Sirius’sufficiency meter for me to recognise it must have been blatantly obvious that I was checking him out, and I was sure he’d be convinced that I was just like Elvira. And this, while true it its own way, was definitely not an impression I wanted to circularise. Then again, just about the total female population of Hogwarts was watching either him or Epistle of James or Remus by then, no matter what year or House they were from, so perhaps I wasn’t as bad as I thought, and in any case I didn’t think I was being as obvious as Lily. Despite that, however, I was terrified that my mystery might get out so I forced myself to commute my position so that I couldn’t see them any more. It was a sacrifice and a great deal gruelling to actually do than I had anticipated, but it was also the sole way I was guaranteed not to make a fool of myself.

acerate leaf to say we all got significantly less alteration done that afternoon than we had hoped, and it was with a pang of guilt that we settled into the plebeian room after supper to try once again to get our heads around everything we needed to know. After all, not all of us had the mastermind of a James or a Sirius, both of whom seemed to be able-bodied to do anything that came up in Defence with both hands tied behind their backs and without a wand, and with the exam the next day we really did require to be on top of it all. Fortunately this time the boys didn’t distract us with a strip display ( or whatever you wanted to visit their video display that afternoon & ndash ; they probably were hot and wanted to cool down, but Martha kept insisting that for James, at to the lowest degree, it had been for Lily’s benefit ) and, by mostly keeping our backs to them in the common room, we did manage to almost completely concentrate on the task at hand.

Fortunately there were no further diversions, and by the time we felt the demand to pack up and go to bed we’d all got through enough to be feeling relatively confident about the following day’s exams. And we all got through them relatively unhurt, even prick who this year hadn’t made a mess of anything or Vanished anything or anyone he wasn’t supposed to. That left for the sec week just Charms, Potions, and a couple of elective course & ndash ; Mary and Martha had astronomy, Blessed Virgin had Muggle Studies and charlotte had Divination, with Care of Magical wight and Arithmancy having already taken place.

Potions, first up the abide by Monday, as always was a bit of a trial. Let’s face it, making something as complicated as Polyjuice Potion is difficult enough at the honest of times, let alone under examination weather condition. I didn’t even have Lily at my table to serve out and to enjoin the verity I missed her significantly, even without the misdirection of Al Jorkins melting his caldron halfway through and needing a replacement. However, I persevered and it was with great relief that I realised the sample distribution I handed up at the end of the exam looked more or less like it was supposed to.

The hypothesis composition that afternoon was less difficult than I had thought it would be, which variety of made up for the practical that dayspring. And Charms a distich of days later was comparatively a air & ndash ; I was even smiling as I successfully cast a renewal Charm, an Imperturbable Charm and a Confundus magic spell ( among others ) for my elderly examiner. And then it was over : sixth class, as far as I was concerned, had officially finished. Naturally Lily, Charlotte and I waited on Mary and Martha, who still needed to do their astronomy exam, before we started celebrating, but celebrate we definitely did. It was over, it hadn’t been as bad as we thought, and we only had one more twelvemonth before we were done, dusted, and qualified.




Author's note : I've had a few revue about this so I thought I'd better characterise the Potions exam. I know that Polyjuice Potion takes a full moon month to have decent - you have to pick the fluxweed at the fully moon and grizzle the lacewing fly flies for a month or something ( I don't have the Koran with me to check off, sorry ). My thought for this exam, though, was that the students would make all those element provided - fluxweed picked at the right time, pre-stewed fly sheet and the corresponding - and have to put them together, along with a share of the examiner also provided, under test consideration. That would still be knockout, right ? After all, it's supposed to be an incredibly complicated potion. So yeah, I know that they wouldn't be able to make it from scratch, but that was what I had in nous for this test. Thanks !


31
The initiatory few calendar week of the summer holidays were in many ways all about mobility. Pretty lots as soon as I got home Mum got me straight back in the car so I could get some practice in before going for my broad device driver licence. Since I was the only one of her children who showed any interest in driving whatsoever she took to the project rather enthusiastically, and before I had been home two workweek she thought I was probably ready to sit the test.

Of form, with her job it wasn’t exactly unmanageable to set a time for that, and she even convinced one of her colleagues analyze me on a Sunday when she wasn’t working so she and Dad could both be there. I was nervous but also looking forward to the prospect of getting my licence, so I practiced diligently and even stopped using Supersensory Charms so I would do everything expected of me in the run. That is, I would beat back like a Muggle.

The mental testing itself was surprisingly un-scary, and once I successfully executed a three-point turn, turn back parallel park and hill head start ( along with everything else ), Mum’s co-worker advised me that I’d done sufficiency to get my wide license. It was an odd feeling & ndash ; if I was an ordinary bicycle Muggle teen this would be my ticket to freedom, but as a witch it was more a curio than anything else, as my proper tag to freedom would be my Apparition licence, which I still needed permission to go to John Griffith Chaney to sit for. However, I agreed with Mum that driving was a utile skill to have, and agreed to aim regular stumble in the car, even when I was legally able to Apparate, so I didn’t lose the acquirement. So I had fun driving Bea around Bristol, including a couple of contract escapes due to inexperience, and a trip to the local cinema to see a film called virtuoso state of war that Mum insisted all the Muggles were raving about.

In tardily July my parents finally agreed that I could go with Mary to get our Apparition licences, provided that I went to Greater London with Dad in the morning, stayed at the Ministry with him until the time of the mental testing, and then left with Mary and her mother. I could Floo home from The Virgin’s place later that afternoon ( amazingly enough, alone & ndash ; I was astonished they would let me do that unaccompanied ! ). According to Mum, the streets of London were unsafe for young womanhood travelling alone, and in any case I had no desire to be hassled by moth-eaten stall-holders wanting to offload their latest good-luck charms. Having said that, I wouldn’t have minded being set loose in Muggle Jack London for a few hour, just for a alteration, but even that was off limits as far as my parents were concerned.

Fortunately we had booked our test for eleven o’clock in the aurora, so I was only at the Ministry for a couple of 60 minutes ( spent with my nose in a Holy Writ ) before I went to meet Madonna and her mum. The mental test itself was a fairly uncomplicated amour & ndash ; we had to Apparate to the next way and then back again, without losing so much as a nose hair. Fortunately Wilkie Twycross actually had taught us well, despite our ill about his teaching style and the Three Ds, and we managed it without issue.

I couldn’t stop grin when the examiner signed my certificate and handed it to me. Ah, I thought, this was it. This was the sense of liberty that I should own had when I got my driver licence. This is what Muggle teenagers felt when the driving examiner told them they’d passed. This was my slate to freedom, to independence, to what being a proper beldam was all about. Scrolls in hand, Mary and I gave each early a big hug in recognition of the fact that we were now really adults. Not just seventeen, but seventeen with apparition licences. Until right now I hadn’t realised what a difference that made.

Mrs Macdonald had elected to wait in the Atrium with the latest written matter of Witch Weekly while we did the test so all we had to do was channelise back down there with our licences afterwards. However I was keen to let Dad know I’d passed, so first gear we went up to charge three to break him the in effect word. He was very pleased but warned me, as parents do, not to try to Apparate base from the Ministry as it was a lot harder going as far as Bristol as it was getting into the next room. I rolled my eyes at The Virgin & ndash ; did he experience to be so fatherly ? & ndash ; and we headed back to the cosmetic surgery.

You could throw knocked us over with a feather when the lift doorway opened to reveal Saint James the Apostle and Sirius. Needless to say they were just as aghast to see us, Sirius in particular looking like he couldn’t quite believe his eyes.

Henry James found his voice first. “ Laura ! Mary ! What are you doing here ? ”

“ shadow tes & rsquo ;, ” said Blessed Virgin, and we both held up our ringlet as though we needed to prove it.

“ Both passed, I see, ” said Sirius, smiling as he raked his fingers through his hair distractedly. “ But isn’t that downstairs somewhere ? ”

“ It is, ” I agreed, “ but I wanted to assure my dad, and he works on this floor. ”

“ What does he do ? ” King James I asked with polite interest.

“ Muggle involvement with the Obliviators, ” I said, recognising that most likely neither of them actually cared but had felt it only gracious to ask.

“ Wha’are ye two doin’here ? ” asked Mary, looking at the boys sharply as she changed the depicted object.

“ I had to register alteration of address details, ” Sirius explained.

“ Oh, you found a piazza ? Great ! ” I couldn’t have said why I was so pleased for him but I was ; I knew he was really corking to get a place of his own.

“ Yep, in Wimbledon, down south a bit, ” he said, smiling back and pushing his hair's-breadth out of his eyes. Ah, that grin again, I thought, feeling my stifle go a footling light. I hadn’t seen him for the best part of a month and had forgotten just how attractive he was. settee down, Laura, settle down. Expelling any improper thoughts from my judgment, I forced my expression into a more solemn expression.

Mary looked confused. “ I though’ye were living wi’James ? ” she asked.

James laughed. “ He was, but he came into some gold and insists on paying his own way, ” he said. “ Stubborn, I call it. ”

Sothis was looking uncomfortable and changed the subject. “ Hey, we’re about to head out for a pungency to eat & ndash ; did you want to join us ? ”

“ Sorry, ” I said, shaking my head, “ can’t. We’re meeting The Virgin’s mum in the Atrium. ” The elevation stopped and two short wizards and a few owls carrying inter-departmental memos got inside.

Mary was grinning. “ Aye, someone’s parents won’let her oot i’London wi’oot a modify chaperone. They’re worried th’last Eaters will ge’her. ”

I shook my head and groaned. “ Even Muggle capital of the United Kingdom, can you believe it ? And to think I was hoping to get some driving in. ”

“ rightfulness, ” said James. “ I guess we can’t argue with parental edict. For those of us who still listen to our parents, that is. ” He grinned at Sirius, who was looking at me with a rather odd expression on his face.

“ drive ? You mean Muggle driving ? ”

“ Yeah, why ? ” I asked.

“ You can drive ? ” asked King James I, looking impressed. “ That is so coolheaded ! ! ” The facelift doors opened and we all trundled out and headed back to the principal reception area.

As I smiled to myself at the sarcasm of James Potter calling me nerveless I could get word The Virgin laughing again. “ William James, Sirius, mee’Laura, half Muggle, whose mither works fer th’Muggle police force. Aye, she can drive. She ha’th’safe teacher ye can fin’. ”

“ I don’t ride very well, though, ” I qualified. “ I’ve only just got my wide licence. Hence the need for practice. ”

“ You can teach us, though, right ? ” asked James, his eyes on Sirius.

“ Yes, and you can explain the licensing to me, that makes no sentience, ” agreed Sirius, that smile back on his face.

I rolled my center & ndash ; just when I would be able-bodied to learn them to drive was beyond me. I mean, it wasn’t like we could shoot a run on a Hogsmeade weekend or something. “ Yeah, why not, ” I said resignedly.

The boy exchanged wicked grins which left me wondering exactly what I had just agreed to. Fortunately just then I spied Mrs Macdonald in her fanny just beyond the Fountain of Magical buddy, Witch Weekly apparently finished. “ Okay, Guy, there’s our lift, ” I said, indicating her. “ Nice to bump into you, we’ll see you at school. ” And we grinned and took off, me hoping my cheeks weren’t vermilion, and went to read Mrs Macdonald our new Apparition license.

“ expression, Ma ! ” said Mary happily. “ Both passed ! ”

“ First time and all, ” I added.

She looked very please. “ fountainhead done, young lady ! Ready to go now then ? ”

“ Sure, Mrs Mac, ” I said, making a strong effort not to take care over my shoulder joint to see if I could see where Sirius was. It was with a tidy bit of self-control and concentration on things like breathing out and in that I made it to the Floo loss without once looking after him and Epistle of James, and I wasn’t surely if I was proud of or not that I succeeded.

After we arrived back at the Macdonald household, our phantom permit in hand, Mary tackled me over lunch. “ Hoo di’ye ken Dog Star was movin’oot ? ”

“ What ? ” My psyche was still on his grinning and I wasn’t quite concentrating on what she was saying.

“ Ye’re still thinkin’aboot him, aren’t ye, ” she said shrewdly.

I tried to look ashamed, hoping it wasn’t too obvious he’d pretty much turned me into a quivering wreck. Which, if I was counting, would make my mark Quivering wreck 1 ; Laura 0. “ Maybe, ” I admitted. “ I’d block just how gorgeous he is. ”

She laughed. “ Ye are gone on him, ” she said. “ I’ve definitely seen him lookin’better than he di’today, he looked like he’d jus’go’oot o’bed. Hadna shaved or anythin’. Anyway, ” she went on, smiling at my embarrassment as I tried ( unsuccessfully ) not to conceive of Dog Star getting out of bed, “ ye soonded lik’ye already knew he was leavin’th’Potters’an’all. Hoo di’ye ken tha’? ”

“ Oh, ” I said, “ he told me. After the Herbology exam. ”

Her eyebrows rose. “ He tol’ye ? I though’he ne’er tol’anyone tha’sor’o’thing. ” Thinking about it, she was right, he never was one for talking about his domestic arrangements.

“ I must birth beat it out of him, ” I said, casting my mind back to the conversation. “ Something was bothering him so I asked him what it was. And he sat and thought about it for a bit, and then he said that he’d inherited some gold and he was pleased because it meant he could propel out of the Potters’. He wasn’t comfortable livelihood off Greek valerian, I think was how he put it. ”

Mary whistled. “ I dinna ken wha’it is aboot ye, ” she said, looking rather impressed, “ bu’ye always manage t’ge’this sor’o’stuff oot o’citizenry. Good matter ye’re nae th’gossipin’type, isna it. ”

“ If I was, I suspect no one would secern me anything, ” I said dryly.

“ Where’d he ge’th’amber ? ” The Virgin asked suddenly. “ I though’he wa’disinherited. ”

“ So did he, ” I agreed. “ Apparently he had an uncle who he got along well with, and he died. He was a bit upset no one had told him about it, it was only when McGonagall told him about the will that he found out it had happened. ”

“ Nasty, ” said Mary. “ I knew there wa’a intellect I still ge’along wi’my family. ”

“ Absolutely, ” I said, nodding. “ Though, to be fair, his does voice like one of the worst. ”

Blessed Virgin nodded. “ Aye, th’Shirley Temple are a strange lot, ” she said. “ All fer blood pureness an’tha’sor’o’bollocks. He did well t’ge’oot. ”

I smiled wryly. “ well, let’s face it, Virgin Mary, if he didn’t then we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place. Not with me a half-blood. ”

She grinned. “ Aye, yer richt, o’course. Though tha’woul’mak’my life story a wee bi’easier … ” And she ducked, too late, as I threw a bread roll at her.

****

In early August I had another obligation, which was to act as bridesmaid when my first cousin Gwendolyn married Henry Morgan Llewellyn, who she’d met at school. Bea and I had been chosen for the role as her closest female person relation, and I’d been in penny-pinching inter-group communication with her via owl regarding wearing apparel measurements and dancing lesson, which she was insisting we take so we didn’t embarrass her or ourselves on the terpsichore floor.

“ okay, Bea, ” I said the day before we were due to leave for their hamlet a few miles beyond Cardiff, “ our dresses have been finished so we just have to pick up them from the dressmaker when we get there. ”

She stopped hexing the dog, whose ears were emitting sparks, and looked at me. “ Our dresses ? ”

I rolled my eye. “ Remember, bridesmaid duties ? Why do you think we’ve been taking those dancing moral ? ”

She scrunched up her face, thinking. “ Oh yeah, ” she said finally. “ When’s the wedding again ? ”

Typical Bea. No sake in anything beyond her own fiddling world. “ Saturday. And the rehearsal’s tomorrow so we have to get there by midday. ”

“ And what’re the dresses like ? ” Bea asked. I pulled out the photograph Gwendolyn had sent me of the finished gowns, which were simple, square and violet-coloured, and showed her. “ I’m not wearing THAT, ” she pronounced immediately. “ I’d look like a stick of lavender. ”

“ just than looking like a chrysanthemum, ” I muttered to myself. Unfortunately she heard me.

“ Chrysanthemum ? ” she asked. “ That dress I liked doesn’t look like a chrysanthemum ! ”

“ right, ” I said. “ You think that if it makes you happy. ”

“ And what’s that supposed to think of ? ”

“ looking, Bea, we’re bridesmaid. Not the bride. We don’t actually have a say in what we wear. Whatever Gwendolyn wants to put us in, we put on. Get it ? So no whinging about a dress you saw at Gladrags eld ago that did, I repeat, make you look like a chrysanthemum. ”

Bea pouted. “ I still don’t want to wear that, ” she insisted, poking a finger at the pic. “ It’s too plain. I want something fancier. ”

I sighed. “ Whatever. How about you send an owl to Gwendolyn now and let her have intercourse ? That way she still has, I don’t know, almost two days to find something else for us. Because it’s not like she’s got much on her plate right now, trying to form a wedding and everything. ”

She looked chastened. “ I suppose you’re right, ” she admitted. “ I still say I’ll look like a spliff of lavender though. ”

“ It could be worse, ” I pointed out with a grin. “ She could sustain dressed us as Banshees. This way at least we can still pass for human. ”

She grinned too. “ Well, I guess, when you put it like that … ”

The next sunup Bea accompanied me as I Apparated & ndash ; fortunately successfully & ndash ; More than a few mile for the get-go time. The rehearsal went fine and all of us except the groomsmen gathered at Uncle Boreas’house for supper afterwards. The older propagation made their excuses after supper and retired early, leaving the rest of us with the best role of a case of wine-coloured. Before long the conversation turned to the war and what we knew of Voldemort and the death Eaters.

“ They’ve been mostly Slytherins, from what I’ve heard, ” my cousin Rhys was saying. “ You know, mass like Selwyn and Yaxley. The old pure-blood families who are dead keen on staying pure-blood. ”

“ It’s not just the old sept, though, ” said Gwendolyn, pouring out several goblet of wine and handing them around. “ Goyle from our year has signed up too. His scene was in the paper after that attack on Diagon back street, his mask had slipped and it was definitely him. And they haven’t been around all that long from what I know. ”

“ Travers and Macnair, too, I understand, ” added Sir Henry Morgan. “ You’re right, Rhys, they are all Slytherins. ”

“ Don’t block Lucius Malfoy, ” said Beatrice, already half way through her looking glass. A few geezerhood above her, Malfoy had made her life difficult for a great deal of her early clock time at Hogwarts. “ I’m sure he’s joined up, he was spouting that stuff all the time. ”

Gwendolyn and Morgan shared a look. “ Yeah, he was pretty nasty, ” Morgan agreed, and I realised Malfoy had probably been in their year. “ Arrogant, thought that being a pure-blood made him royalty. ”

“ A bit like the Blacks, then, ” Rhys said. The sudden reference to Canicula’family took me by surprise and I dropped my goblet, making quite a slew as it shattered on the floor and drenched me in elderflower wine in the process.

“ Sorry, ” I muttered as I fiddled with my wand and stamp Reparo to reassemble my ice, keeping my face down and hoping any rosiness would be attributed to the accident.

Fortunately Rhys ignored my uncomfortableness and just poured me another drinking as he went on talking. “ I know that Bellatrix Black, who’s now Bellatrix Lestrange from what I hear, is right in there with the destruction Eaters. ” He had been at school with Bellatrix, who was Sothis’cousin and from all account statement was a smart as a whip but foul piece of work. “ But not all the Blacks have joined up. Seems Pieris japonica Shirley Temple Black & ndash ; she was the middle sister & ndash ; married Ted Tonks, and he’s definitely Muggle-born. ” I grinned despite myself : the Black kinsfolk would certainly have loved that. I wondered if she had been disinherited like Sirius had.

“ There was even a Shirley Temple Black put in Gryffindor, wasn’t there ? ” asked Gwendolyn. “ I’m certain I remember that happening, something like my sixth or seventh year. It was a pretty big deal at the time. ”

I was trying not to face at anyone, hoping that I wouldn’t be called on to comment on this. And to reckon I’d been under the mental picture that a weekend with my cousins might have been enough to temporarily expel him from my mind. ( Yeah, like that was even possible. ) Unfortunately Bea, as always, didn’t remark my irritation and said the precise thing I was hoping she wouldn’t. “ I remember that. He’s in your year, isn’t he, Laura ? ”

I raised my head. “ Uh, yeah, that’s Sothis, ” I said, hoping my buttock were their usual colour. “ He’s in my yr, and he’s definitely in Gryffindor. ” I drank some wine as another excuse not to seem at any of them.

“ There you go, then, ” Rhys said triumphantly. “ With him and lily-of-the-valley tree, maybe the Blacks are turning. ”

I shook my head, inwardly chastising myself for being unable to keep open out of this conversation. Honestly, any hazard to let the cat out of the bag about Canicula and I was jumping at it. Couldn’t I have just a little more ego restraint ? “ I don’t think so, ” I said. “ His untested sidekick is in Slytherin like the rest of them were. And I think his parents have disowned him. So maybe he’s the smuggled sheep, so to speak. ”

“ Or the white sheep, considering they’re the Blacks, ” Bea added.

John Pierpont Morgan’s shocked face disrupted the cosmopolitan laughter. “ They disowned him just because he was put in Gryffindor ? ”

“ No, he ran away from plate or something, ” I explained, pretending I wasn’t keenly interested in the story. “ A year or two ago. He’d had enough, apparently. They disowned him then, he’s living with a checkmate of his now as far as I know. ” Not strictly on-key, I realised, but for me to bed too much might have raised an eyebrow or two.

“ You seem to do it a tidy bit about it, ” said Gwendolyn anyway, flashing me a grinning.

I shrugged and Bea & ndash ; to my surprise & ndash ; came to my rescue. “ Remember, Laura’s in Gryffindor too, ” she said. “ So they’re in the Lapp House. ”

“ That’s right, so you were, ” said Gwendolyn. “ I’d forgotten that. I’m so use to us all being Hufflepuffs that I’d leave about the treasonist in our midst. ” She smiled broadly at Beatrice and me.

“ spine to the Shirley Temple Black, Narcissa Black is going to marry Malfoy, I saw that in the paper, ” said Bea, changing the subject field to my not bad easing. When did she get so perceptive, I wondered. “ So it looks like she’s reverting to type. ”

Morgan just nodded, though this was clearly news to him. “ Like I said, he thought he was just about royalty, just like the Negro do, so that had probably been planned from childhood. ”

Gwendolyn shuddered. “ Yep, she thought a lot of herself, too, from memory. Narcissa was such a good name for her. They’re probably a perfect match. ”

We all nodded our correspondence as Rhys got up and opened another bottle of wine. “ Right, then, ” he was saying. “ Who’s up for a refill ? ”

The wedding the adjacent day went off without a problem. We hadn’t been particularly occupy about Death Eater plan of attack as Gwendolyn and Morgan were both pure-bloods, but there was always a risk that soul in the party could feature offended the haywire masses. ( Like Bea, for model. She was a bit of a prime quantity prospect for that sort of affair. ) In fact, with the war on, it was almost storm that the Brigid and groom had waited seven geezerhood to get get married, as quick elopements were fast becoming the preferred option.

Gwendolyn looked absolutely stunning in her ivory gown and train, and Bea and I looked nice but not prissy enough to steal the display in the apparel she had selected for us. The guys were dressed in US Navy dress robe with the episodic guess of reddish blue in the trim, just enough to set off our frock. Looking at Bea and the topper Man posing for their photos, even I appreciated how well it looked.

However, it was with corking relief that we reached the end of the response. Gwendolyn and Morgan did a lap to say goodbye to everyone, and, waving shyly, Disapparated away to their honeymoon destination. This meant that my official duties were over for the night, and I breathed a suspiration of relief and sat down with a glass of wine-colored. Bridesmaid duties aren’t exactly onerous, but I’d felt a sure amount of pressure to see to it Gwendolyn’s day went off perfectly, and fortunately even Beatrice had behaved herself which I couldn’t always rely on, especially when there was alcohol involved.

****

The next sunrise, still in welt and nursing a tike holdover, I was surprised by Cerridwyn’s coming into court at my bedchamber window. She came with a missive from Lily, which surprised me as I hadn’t realised she’d been anywhere near Surrey. Ah well, this is what happens when you give an owl its read/write head, I thought, opening the letter with interest.

love Laura

I wasn’t sure where you were at the consequence to pen to you, so I was so proud of when Cerridwyn came to visit !

I wanted to get in touch because I’ve had an theme. After the onset last workweek on Diagon skittle alley I thought that you might experience trouble getting license to go to capital of the United Kingdom to get your school things. charlotte has been having the same problem and even my parents, who don’t know what’s happening in our public, are getting a picayune hesitant.

So, to get past this, I’m proposing that the five of us miss get together in London in the week before school goes back, and do all our shopping as a group. I’ve already contacted Mary about this and her mum has agreed to play along us, as has my dad ( he needs to change money at Gringotts anyway before I can buy anything ). So we’ll be well chaperoned.

I was thinking that we could fill in the Leaky Cauldron on Th 25th at ten o’clock. You can either Apparate or Floo there, and if your mum or dad wants to total too they’re most receive to.

Anyway, please spell back with your answer as soon as you can so I know who can come, and if the day’s bad we have time to alter it. But, like I said, there’s definitely safety in numbers and with five of us, all of age now, plus two chaperones we should be fine.

Love,
Lily

PS I’ve been made read/write head Girl, can you believe it ? I got the letter last hebdomad. Even my parents are excited, they might be Muggles but this is something they can see.

I smiled to myself as I found some owl treats for Cerridwyn after her long journey. If anyone was going to follow up with a way we could beguile up before school started, as well as ensuring we could get our schooltime supplying, it would be Lily. And of course of action she’d been made Head Girl & ndash ; who else could they possibly have chosen ? Leda Madley, Dione Turpin and Elsie Baddock just weren’t heading material like Lily was.

I showed the letter to Dad once we got back home, thinking he would be more potential to accord to Lily’s proposal than Mum. Because she was a policewoman Mum had seen the very worst of society, even wizarding society, and was therefore more hesitant to let Bea and I do very much at all fifty we be set upon by the decease Eaters she was convinced were lurking around every quoin. And, let’s face it, the Dementor attack the previous summer hadn’t exactly quelled her fear.

Fortunately Lily had made her controversy well, and that afternoon I was able to mail Cerridwyn off on the take journeying to Surrey saying Dad had agreed I could go. He didn’t seem to have clicked that Lily’s dad was a Muggle, and therefore probably useless as a chaperone against Death eater, and I saw absolutely no reason to enlighten him.

The other four girls were already at the Leaky cauldron by the time I arrived in the fireplace, dusting myself off and making sure I still had my scepter, money sac and daffodil clasp. We all gave each other hug and I greeted The Virgin’s mum and Lily’s dad, who I’d met just once previously, before we set off out the back to the entrance and into Diagon Alley.

It was a year since I’d been there and I was struck by how much it had deteriorated. terminal time, half the shops had been closed and ratty stalls were sprouting up peddling protective amulets the ilk. This year, it was even spoilt. The solely places that seemed to still be trading, aside from the stall which appeared to have multiplied exponentially, were Gringotts, Flourish & amp ; Blotts, Ollivander’s, madam Malkin’s and Bobbin’s, and they were very possibly only give for the back-to-school traffic. Further up the lane I could see what looked like a curse battle taking seat, jets of light bouncing off the empty buildings, and generally people were moving quickly, in large groups, no one looking at anyone else to see if they recognised them, let alone stopping for a quick Old World chat. Overall the humour was rather depressing and I guessed the disappointed looking at on the young woman’faces were mirrored on my own.

This wasn’t helped by the fact that beyond the duel up ahead we could see what looked like the backrest of some Death Eaters, hooded and masked, who appeared to be just wandering up the street being generally intimidating. This happened reasonably frequently, and when they were accosted by Aurors they either Disapparated or entered into a full battle right on the street. Yes, some were occasionally caught, but we were under the impression these were Junior appendage, expendable, who probably patrolled Diagon Alley as part of their preparation. In any case, not wanting to be caught up in anything to do with them, we all caught our breath and waited, frozen, until they were out of sight. No one wanted to do their shopping in the apparition of people like that.

“ Wands out, girls, ” Mrs Macdonald muttered, rather belatedly as we had already done so. “ We don’t know if there are any more of them. Stay here cashbox I give the word. ” We obediently grouped up tightly, Mr Sir Arthur John Evans looking extremely picket as he realised the extent of the war in his daughter’s public.

Finally the hooded figures disappeared and we started breathing normally again, and Mrs Macdonald allowed us to venture into the street proper. first base point was Gringotts, where we all had to foot up some amber so that we could actually shop. The camber too had had its certificate increased, and there were waits of up to two hours to get access to your money. In this font Lily was the lucky one, as the waiting line to convert Muggle money over to Galleons, reap hook and Canute was significantly scant than that to get into the vault below.

Luckily for whatever grounds we managed to get through comparatively quickly, and by quarter past XI we all had jingling bag and made our way back outside to the dank street. Ignoring the large Ministry of Magic poster that featured on every empty shop fa & ccedil ; ade, we hurried to buy our school day supplies and then get out of there. Even the usual schoolgirl chatter that we engaged in so easily was tempered as we moved through the bookshop and apothecary in silence, the solemnity of the atmosphere around us almost overwhelming.

Finally we found ourselves back in the Leaky Cauldron. That too was abandon, with a foreboding air to it, and Lily suggested that we go out into Muggle London for some lunch, surprising me when she pointed out it was only one o’clock. We all agreed eagerly and Mr Evans, who looked rather harried after his sojourn into the wizarding world, even offered to pay on the consideration that we became cheerful again. After all, with an ill wife he probably had adequate anxiety at rest home to last him a lifetime. Mrs Macdonald, however, said she had to be getting back to workplace and took her farewell of us, leaving us a group of six, and once we had farewelled her we stepped out onto Charing crossbreed Road.

“ So, Lils, Head Girl, ” Charlotte smiled as we settled in a nearby caf & eacute ;. “ You must be pleased with that. ”

“ Depends on who the oral sex Boy is, though, doesn’t it, ” Martha said perceptively.

Lily smiled and nodded. “ Yes, I don’t think I could process with Gibbon all year, ” she agreed, giggling slightly. “ But seriously, it’s a great award, I didn’t realise Dumbledore thought so highly of me ! ”

“ An’why wouldna he ? ” demanded Mary. “ End o’las’term ye were e’en keepin’James IV Potter in check ! ”

“ And that’s saying something, ” agreed Martha. “ Though I suspect he was keeping himself in chit. But then again, that was due to Lily as well, so you might as well shoot credit. ” She winked at Lily across the table.

Lily had been casting furtive glimpse at her begetter ever since Henry James’epithet was mentioned, but he appeared expressionless. Regardless, she changed the subject.

“ So, is there any causerie from the summer that I don’t know about ? ”

The Virgin looked at me. “ We bumped int’James an’Sirius las’month a’th’Ministry, ” she said, instantly disappointing Lily if she had hoped to hold open Saint James out of the conversation. “ Sirius was changin’his address a’th’mansion house o’book ; he’d jus’moved oot o’th’ceramicist’place. ”

Martha looked to the highest degree surprised. “ What ? ”

“ An’wha’s even stranger, ” Mary went on, “ was tha’Laura knew aboot it an’didna tell us. ”

“ That’s not strictly unfeigned, ” I protested. “ I knew he planned to move out. I didn’t know it had happened. ”

“ How did you get laid that ? ” asked charlotte interestedly.

“ He told me, ” I said. “ After one of the exam in conclusion term. ”

Martha and Charlotte looked surprised and demanded more selective information, though through their questions I could listen Lily muttering something that sounded like, “ Of course he did. ”

Deciding to disregard Lily and answer the others’interrogative sentence, I took a deep breathing space and hoped my cheeks were their usual colour. “ You know how sometimes hoi polloi like to peach to me about their problems ? Well, that was one of those times. He had something he needed to get off his chest and I just happened to be there. ”

Lily was looking at me shrewdly and I could almost see the sprocket in her mastermind moving. I hoped ardently that she hadn’t guessed my guilty trivial secret about Dog Star : Lily was pretty cluey and I wasn’t sure I liked the tone on her face.

“ So this was a problem, was it ? ” she asked. “ Why did he impress out ? I thought he and Jesse James were getting along fine. ”

“ He came int’some gol & rsquo ;, apparently, ” Mary explained. “ Too prood t’live off charity, was tha’it, Laura ? ”

“ Sounds about right wing, ” I agreed. “ He wasn’t well-to-do living off someone else’s money, so as soon as he could open it he was out. Got an inheritance after a renegade uncle died. ” I looked at Lily. “ That was the problem, by the way & ndash ; the uncle had died and no one had told him about it. He wasn’t too pleased. ”

“ Why was he a renegade ? ” Charlotte looked curious.

“ turncoat to the Negro, ” I clarified. “ That is, he left Sirius some gold so he had to be a apostate, by definition. ”

“ right, ” said Martha. “ Well, watch the fan club swell up once this gets out. self-employed person, financially answer and living alone, no lupus erythematosus. They’ll probably be camped out on his doorstep. ”

Mary was grinning. “ wellspring, then, Laura, we’d expert mak’sure we dinna leak out where it is. Elvira woul’be doon there nimble than ye can say Quidditch. ”

“ You know that too ? ” Lily looked surprised this time. “ He’s not normally that opened with that sort of selective information, is he ? ”

“ Not usually, ” agreed Martha, her eyebrows too moving up her forehead.

“ We don’t know precisely where it is, ” I explained. “ Just the suburb. I couldn’t tell you though if it’s a house or a monotone or a hole in the ground. ”

“ Still, ” mused Lily, as if to herself. Again, I wasn’t sure I liked the look on her nerve.

“ In other news, ” said Martha, changing the matter, “ Duncan and I have broken up. ”

“ What ? ! ” They’d seemed such a unspoiled mates.

“ Yeah, well, I’m going back to school future week, ” she explained, “ so I’d not be capable to see him until Christmas. So we thought we’d cry it a day and, if we’re both single and concern this meter next year, we’ll beak up where we left off. ”

“ That’s horrendous, ” Charlotte said sympathetically. “ Are you very upset ? ”

“ A bit, ” Martha admitted. “ But it’s the only option. We can’t hold back going if we’re never going to see each other. And let’s face it, I would probably accept got bored of him in another couple of month anyway, like I do with everyone else. ”

Mary nodded. “ Marcus an’I are breakin’up too. Same reason. fountainhead, nae th’bored one, bu’th’nae seein’each ither one. ”

I looked at her. “ I didn’t know that ! ” And I was supposed to be her in force protagonist.

She nodded again, looking a short sad. “ Well, I’m nae exactly throb aboot it, bu’wha’else coul’we dae ? If we were still together an’I didna see him fer four months tha’woul’be sorry, I’d be wonderin’aboot him all th’time, an’hopin’he’s nae doing a Bertram on me, an’feelin’shamed fer checking anyone oot myself. ”

Lily, in the nates next to her, gave her a sympathetic hug. “ That’s very noble of you, Mary. ”

Eventually the conversation wound up and Mr Evans, confessedly to his word, paid what I suspected ended up being rather a respectable bill. We all thanked him profusely as we made our way back to the Leaky Cauldron. “ See you future week, young lady, ” I grinned as I stepped into the hearth. Their smile faces stayed with me as I hurtled through the Floo meshwork back home.




source’s note : Another overly long chapter but I needed to let out it here because the adjacent one really has to place upright alone, so my apologies for that. I do try to retain them in the 4000-5000 parole mountain chain but sometimes I just can’t get them to break in the right office. And I’m very no-account that this one wasn’t quite up to standard ( yes, I know, very filler-ish ) but I just couldn’t get the counterweight right. I’ll employment on it later when I have some more time and try to meliorate it a bit.



32
The firstly of September that year was unseasonably warm as summer insisted on stretching on retentive than usual. As a result most of the students turned up at Martin Luther King Jr. hybridization place in light summertime dress, trying to stay cool before we headed north. True to fashion many of the daughter were wearing miniskirts, which didn’t go unnoticed by the son on the train, and Jesse James in particular I noticed looked awestruck by Lily when he saw her short dress and program heels.

We all met up on the weapons platform and before long Lily had hurriedly put her robe on over her clothes, no doubt disappointing James and half the early boys there. “ If I’m Head miss, ” she explained, “ I really should be setting a honest example. ” She affixed the Head Girl pin proudly and twirled around for us. “ Well ? How does it look ? ”

How did any pin on lightlessness school gown reckon ? Small, to be truthful. But we weren’t about to say that. “ It looks majuscule, Lils, ” said Martha with a grin. “ Really sets off your hair. ”

Lily shot her a tone and stopped pirouetting. “ I’ll recover a compartment with you but then I’ll have to head up up to the prefects’carriage to give the newbie their direction. Has anyone seen who the Head Boy is yet ? ”

As if to answer her question Jesse James stopped while walking past our gathering. “ dawn, dame, ” he said airily with a grin. “ Uh, Lily, can I have a parole please ? ” He was already in his schooltime gown as well, which was most out of type for him, but maybe he did it to strike Lily. She looked as baffled by his postulation as the quietus of us were & ndash ; I mean, we all knew he fancied her, but it wasn’t like him to be so, er, polite about it all & ndash ; but she nodded her acquiescence and followed him to a spot about five grand away.

My parents, who had been catching up with Mary’s mum in the screen background, beckoned me over. “ Sweetheart, we have to manoeuvre off, ” Dad called, looking a bit molest. He was more punctuate than common due to the war and its significance for all Ministry employees, not just those in law enforcement, and was keen to get to work even though it was a William Ashley Sunday. My female parent would never appease on the platform alone in a million years, being uncomfortable with all the conjuring trick in the air, so would obviously join him. I hurried over to farewell them properly.

“ Now, remember what we talked about and examine hard this twelvemonth, ” Dad reminded me. “ A lot depends on your triton tier and I want you to be able to do what you want to once you’ve finished. ” I smiled but groaned inwardly & ndash ; we’d had this talk respective times and all it seemed to reinforce in me was the fact that as far as Dad was concerned I wasn’t allowed to get any fun until the succeed June.

“ And appear after yourself, ” Mum added. “ Don’t do anything reckless and stay in groups when you go to Hogsmeade, I don’t like the sound of the security system up there. ” Typical. She always did stimulate a copper’s perspective. Though I wasn’t convinced Hogsmeade visits would be going ahead at all this twelvemonth anyway, what with the Dementors the previous May. Mum must deliver seen my look because she gave me a sudden grin. “ And don’t forget to make fun, ” she added indulgently. “ Make sure you enjoy this year, it’s the in conclusion class you’ll have of no responsibility. Try to defecate the most of it. ”

This time I smiled for real. “ Thanks, Mum, ” I said. “ I’ll be fine, I promise. ” And I gave them both a hug and waved them off the platform.

By the time I got back to the grouping Sothis, Remus and St. Peter the Apostle had joined the miss and Dog Star, the tallest by at least four or five in, had obviously seen me coming over everyone else’s heads and moved over to ca-ca room for me. The conversation was focusing on supposition about what Lily and King James were taking so long to discuss. So far the money seemed to be on a declaration of undying love ( from King James I, that is ), until Remus let splay another alternative.

“ I’d near take hold of them before it’s too late, ” he said, looking at his ticker. “ We’ve all got to get to the prefects’carriage before the fifth-years heartbeat us to it. ”

“ All ? ” Charlotte asked sharply. “ Why would James II need to go there ? ”

Sirius looked surprised. “ Didn’t we say ? Dumbledore’s made him Head Boy. ”

You could let knocked me over with a feather, and by the feeling on Blessed Virgin’s, Queen City’s and Martha’s faces they were having the same response. Mary found her voice first. “ James ? question Boy ? Where di’tha’come from ? ”

“ No idea, we were as surprised as you are, ” he laughed. “ But it’s not a joke, he’s got the badge and everything. ”

Martha giggled. “ This should be interesting. ”

Remus nodded. “ I know. James ceramicist, Head Boy. Merlin only knows what he’ll get up to. ”

Martha shook her head. “ That’s not what I meant. Lily’s Head Girl. ”

Now it was the boys’bout to look gobsmacked. Remus’human face was a cross between horror and amusement, Peter looked like he was in shock, while Sothis just started laughing. “ Oh, that’s brilliant, ” he said. “ Those two having to exploit together all year. He won’t know what’s hit him. ”

cock clearly agreed. “ How long before she caves in, do you count on ? ” he asked no one in detail.

Charlotte grinned. “ If Saint James the Apostle knows what’s good for him, he’ll not push it at all, ” she said rather wisely. “ Lily’s much more in all likelihood to take aim the decoy if it’s not forced down her throat all the time. ”

“ You’re not awry, ” Sirius said rather heavily, and I suspected he wasn’t thinking about Lily and Henry James at all, but rather Elvira and the sleep of the fan golf club, who unsurprisingly were perched nearby watching him.

Remus’look had an expression halfway between a smiling and a frown. “ In any character, I think I’d break rouse those two lovebirds out of their stupor, ” he said. “ It’s almost ten to eleven, we really have to get a relocation on. More so if they’re oral sex Boy and Girl. ”

A moment later Lily and James came back to the group, their faces both a niggling bit garden pink which made me enquire what exactly they had been discussing. Lily looked at the rest of us. “ We’ve got to go, ” she said a fiddling breathlessly. “ Can you load up my trunk and save me a spot in the compartment ? I don’t think we’ll have to be up at the prefects’carriage all day. ”

“ Sure, Lils, ” said Martha with a smile that I was sure Lily didn’t like all that much. At to the lowest degree, if it had been me I wouldn’t have liked it.

“ Same for us, Padfoot, ” added James. “ Find a compartment and we’ll get together you when we can. ”

cargo our trunks onto the train gave me a welcome diversion from Canicula, who was looking better than ever. If that was even possible. I hadn’t seen him since we’d bumped into him at the Ministry back in July and was almost awestruck by his coming into court - his tomentum was at just the correct duration, his eyes had a most attractive sparkle to them and I wasn’t convinced that cheekbones that perfect were even sound. And I hadn’t failed to notice that I’d been standing next to him during the conversation and that his arm had kept brushing against mine as people pushed past us to get to the train. Due to the warm weather, we both had short sleeves on so that contact meant skin on skin. I still had tingles from it. ( Quivering Wreck 2 ; Laura 0. But who’s counting ? )

Unfortunately my diversion wasn’t to hold out, as Sothis and Peter insisted on helping us with our trunk. What with five trunks, two dame coop and a cat carrier thrown into the mix, it was always going to be a convoluted procedure, especially since the other little girl all had miniskirts on and were therefore moving very carefully. I had bucked the trend somewhat by wearing shorts and a t-shirt, more than for practical reasons than anything else as I didn’t relish the thought of clambering around with trunks and raspberry coop and the like with a short bird on, and the end result of that was that I ended up packing various things onto the baggage rack for everyone else, the others not keen on showing their breeches to the wider worldly concern as they tried to get everything in posture.

The problem was that this again put me in close contact with Sirius, who was really the solitary option to assist us out in any meaningful way. After all, he was significantly taller and also more sensitive than Peter who, realising he was just in the way, had gone to secure another compartment for the boys. Together we manoeuvred various bits of luggage, trying to form sure everything fit and nothing would come tumbling down on our headspring the first meter the train went round a crease, me trying not to let on that my human knee were a minuscule weak at his proximity to me. ( Quivering Wreck 3 ; Laura 0. Great. I really was coping with this so well. ) Finally everything was in home, which would consume been good except that my left hand was wedged underneath Charlotte’s trunk and I couldn’t get it out, a result of my not paying enough attention to what I was doing.

“ Uh oh, ” I said, wincing as the great trunk pressed down on my hired hand. “ Little help ? ”

Dog Star, who’d looked a bit perturb as though he was thinking of early things, suddenly noticed what was unseasonable. “ Oh, geez, Laura, I’m sorry, ” he said, lifting the trunk effortlessly so I could untangle the pin down item. “ Is your bridge player all right ? ” He looked amazing and I was more than a little unfocussed. Why I hadn’t just pulled out my wand and levitated the tree trunk myself I had no estimation, but then again I didn’t always think clearly when he was around.

I sat down in my prat and shook the hand in front of me. It felt hunky-dory and I didn’t think anything was broken, though it was throbbing slightly. “ It’s ticket, ” I said vaguely, feeling it with my other deal to check for broken bones. “ Doesn’t matter anyway, I’ve got another one. ” I felt myself tensing up, a physical response to his presence that was fast becoming my defence mechanism, making sure I didn’t do anything that would embarrass me.

He chuckled but his smile was replaced very quickly with a look of business. “ You should get that looked at, ” he said seriously. “ feel, once we get there, don’t try pulling any of that stuff down yourself, okay ? That’s what the porters are for. ”

I nodded, pretending not to notice the grin Blessed Virgin was flashing at me from the seat reverse. “ If you insist. ”

“ Yes, I think I do. ” He paused, looking around the compartment. “ If I’m done here, I think I’ll go find out where Wormtail has landed us. ”

Fortunately Mary realised I was rather haunted and, once we were alone again, quickly steered the conversation away from Sirius. “ Wha’dae ye recollect o’Dumbledore makin’James Potter Head Boy ? ”

“ A surprisal, to say the to the lowest degree, ” said Martha with a smile.

“ Yeah, he wasn’t a prefect, ” Queen City agreed, a perplexed look on her typeface. “ He can’t be Head Boy if he wasn’t a prefect. That’s unprecedented. ”

“ Not quite, ” I corrected, glad to suffer something else to think about. “ I’m pretty sure it’s happened before, but only like a twelve clip in the thousand or so years Hogwarts has been going. I think it’s mentioned somewhere in Hogwarts : A History. ”

“ Bu’why him ? ” asked Mary.

Martha was frowning. “ Thinking seriously about it, though, who would you stimulate given it to ? ” She started counting the former term’s sixth-year prefects off on her finger's breadth. “ Caradoc Dearborn & ndash ; he’s nice enough but I don’t know that he’s Head Boy textile. I think the special responsibility might finish him off, personally. Bernie Carmichael & ndash ; he’s okay, actually before today he was my tip for it, but frankly I suspect he might struggle in too much of a leadership role. Remus & ndash ; keeps getting the lurgy which probably counts against him, as well as chasing around after that darn rabbit half the time. And Edward Gibbon & ndash ; I really can’t see Dumbledore giving the capitulum Boy job to a Slytherin, not in this day and age. ”

“ And James II did show exceptional leadership with that altogether Dementor thing last term, ” I added, thinking back. “ Dumbledore commented on it more than once when he was debriefing us afterwards. ”

“ Tha’micht hae bin it, ” agreed Blessed Virgin. “ Ye canna deny he di’tha’verra well an’all. ”

“ poor people Lily, ” charlotte giggled. “ If she thought she’d be able to avert him this year she’s had a horrible shock. ”

Martha shook her head. “ Who says she wanted to avoid him ? ” she asked, that wicked smile back on her face. “ The simply problem is that she won’t be capable to see him just on her footing. Which will be a bit of a jar to the system, I suspect. ”

Our conversation was interrupted again when we noticed some flashes of visible radiation in the enactment outside our compartment and the door opened to once more reveal Sirius and Saint Peter, who were apparently bored and had come to see us again. “ You don’t mind, do you ? ” Sirius asked with a grin as he climbed over the prone body of Severus Snape lying on the floor of the corridor. “ It was a bit quiet with just Wormtail. ”

charlotte just raised her brow at him. “ So what happened there ? ” she asked, pointing at the touch where Snape was now hidden by the closed compartment door.

Canicula shrugged as he sat down next to Mary, his drive almost awkward as he tried to find room for his farseeing legs. “ That ? Oh, he’s just been Stunned. No permanent damage. ” He looked slightly disappointed by that fact.

“ And why was he Stunned ? ” Martha asked archly.

“ He was in the way, ” St. Peter the Apostle explained.

“ Trying to get in to see Lily, I expect, ” Sothis elaborated, shrugging again. “ I didn’t actually stop to ask, to be true. I don’t think he even realised she’s not back yet. ”

“ An’ye’re jus’going t’leave him there ? ” asked Mary.

“ Fair point, ” Canicula conceded, standing up again. “ I’ll go dump him somewhere. Any hypnotism as to where ? Out the windowpane, perhaps ? ” He grinned at us and I felt my cheeks starting to burn.

Fortunately leaving Severus wherever he did bequeath him took long enough for me to retrieve my calmness, and by the time he re-joined us in the compartment I was almost breathing normally again.

“ That’s ameliorate, ” he said, taking the arse next to Blessed Virgin again. “ near thing I moved him, too, it wouldn’t have been very dainty for the others to issue forth back from the prefects’carriage and encounter that sort of rubbish lying around outside. ”

I smiled to myself as I leaned over to find fault up Mary’s cat, which was nestled by my substructure. Having Circe on my lap, I theorised, would give me something to pay attention to that wasn’t Sirius. “ Who would have thought you, of all people, would end up with your respectable admirer as authority figure of speech ? ” I said lightly, playing with the cat’s fur as I tried not to look at him too much.

He grinned again, validating my resolution to run with the cat a bit more. After all, no one should make a grin that seductive. It just shouldn’t be allowed. “ Can’t argue with that, ” he agreed. “ Prongs, too, the king of detention. I think he’s even had more than I have over the years. He may never be this down. ” He shook his fountainhead resignedly, leaning forward in his rear and resting his cubital joint on his knee. “ Don’t get laid what’s got into him, myself. ”

Martha nodded, giggling. “ Absolutely. James II and Remus both in positions of world power. Merlin only knows how much will go to their heads. ”

“ At least one thing’s for certain, ” tool piped up from Lily’s seat, where he was lounging back looking rather comfortable. “ We won’t be getting in nearly as a good deal trouble with him to back us up. ”

We all shared a laugh at the view of St. James passing off all the son’trick as things necessary for him to perform his Head Boy responsibility properly. He did stimulate the giving of the gab, so it was potential that he might just deplumate it off sometimes, though probably not if he was trying to convince McGonagall or Dumbledore. I stayed relatively quiet throughout the conversation though, not wanting to say too much in case I embarrassed myself or, worse, let on anything at all about what I thought of Sirius.

Eventually Lily poked her brain back in the compartment, indicating that the Head duties were completed and King James and Remus were also spare. She looked pointedly at tool, in her tush, and Sirius, next to Mary, before coming back in.

“ I’m not sure as shooting that we’ll all fit, citizenry, ” she said with a grin. She had a compass point & ndash ; while six of us could fit reasonably well, there was no way known that the compartment would aim nine.

James poked his head over Lily’s shoulder. “ I think it’s high gear metre you were getting back to our compartment anyway, Padfoot, ” he said. “ That’s if it’s the one I think it is. The titterer have found your trunk. ”

Sirius groaned. “ I knew we shouldn’t have left it unattended, ” he muttered, shaking his forefront, though I caught his eye and it was twinkling. “ What are they doing this time, trying on my clothes or planting love potions ? ” Even though he was smiling I got the distinguishable impression he was only one-half joking.

James I grinned. “ Both, probably. And I think that some of them have even had a go at my trunk, just for good measure. Now come on and leave these young woman in repose, will you ? ”

Lily stepped back outside while prick and Sothis left, then came in and plonked herself down with a smile. “ This could be a rather interesting class, ” she admitted.

“ We heard James was straits Boy, ” Charlotte said with a grin. “ And you’ll have to be working closely with him all year … ” She let her vox trail off.

Lily nodded. “ And, you know, a class or two ago that would take in been a incubus. Always watching me or propositioning me and making lewd suggestions and goodness only knows what else. But he was most reticent today, not a helping hand out of situation, not one inappropriate input or even a leer. I think he’s growing up. ” She looked rather pleased with the spot.

Martha was smiling. “ So are we taking stake ? How foresightful before he jumps you ? Or do you think he might even have grown up enough to not even try without getting permission first ? ”

Lily looked rather pink. “ How about we leave the betting for now, ” she suggested, colouring even more. “ I’ll let you know in another week or so. ”

The Virgin had a rather mischievous tone in her eye. “ I thin’we’d be ameliorate off takin’bet on who jumps who firs & rsquo ;, ” she said with a grin. “ If King James I is this restrained it micht jus’be Lily here who caves i’afore he does. ”

Martha grinned at her. “ Blessed Virgin, you’re a girl after my own heart, ” she said fondly. “ I think you might be spot on. ”

Lily was shaking her principal furiously. “ I don’t know what you mean, ” she said, though it was make she was trying harder to convince herself than anyone else. “ But, in other news, ” she went on, looking at us with a sly grin, “ I couldn’t say this when we went to Diagon alley’cause Dad was there, but guess what ? Petunia’s got a young man ! ”

I’d heard about Petunia, Lily’s honest-to-goodness sister, who was apparently jealous of her for being magic and therefore tried to distance herself from Lily as much as possible. Lily had always been a bit touchy about this as they had been close as shaver and she missed her babe’s company.

“ Petunia ? ? ” Martha’s voice couldn’t contain her surprisal. She and Charlotte had met genus Petunia whereas Mary and I hadn’t, though we understood that the quondam Herbert McLean Evans girl wasn’t much like Lily at all and was in fact rather plain stitch and bossy. “ Really ? genus Petunia, a fellow ? ”

“ What’s he like ? ” asked Charlotte eagerly. She was always up for a beloved taradiddle, even if it was petunia’s.

Lily smiled, then made a font. “ His name’s Vernon, ” she said, “ and he’s appalling. The kind who knows everything and will tell you so himself. And he’s revolting-looking too & ndash ; huge, with a one shot face and piggy eyes and a moustache, of all things. ” She paused for dramatic burden. “ Honestly, I think he looks like a sea horse. sort of like a younger translation of Slughorn. ”

We all giggled at the thought & ndash ; Lily’s description, while short, was undeniably smooth-spoken, and we all had a genial delineation of the unknown Vernon. Which was less than attractive, I might add.

Martha grinned broadly. “ I’d pay to see that, ” she said. “ Horsey Petunia and Walrus Vernon. They could set forth their own zoo ! ” S he then clapped her script over her mouth, realising she’d insulted genus Petunia. “ Oh, I’m sorry, Lils, ” she went on hastily. “ I didn’t really mean that, I was just having some fun. Petunia doesn’t really look like a horse. ” She gave Lily a hug in a show of contrition, though she did take care at Mary and me over her shoulder and mouth, ‘ Yes, she does !’And Queen City, witnessing the unharmed thing, nodded significantly at us in obvious agreement.

Blessed Virgin chose to alter the issue to get Martha off the hook. “ Hoo’s yer ma going, Lily ? Copin’wi’th’treatmen’all richt ? ”

Lily looked up and Martha gratefully dropped the bear hug. “ She’s in absolution at the here and now, ” Lily said, her font brightening. “ She was pretty ill at the end of endure full term, apparently, but Dad said my being menage perked her up a bit. I almost felt guilty to be coming back. ”

“ Oh, don’t dumbfound yourself up, ” I said with feeling. “ You can’t supporter having to come back to schooltime. At to the lowest degree you were able to give way her a pair of months, and you’ll be going base at Christmas. ”

She smiled appreciatively at me. “ I know. And she was loads adept, almost like the old meter before she was ill. ” And we fell deep into discussion about diverse family penis and, immersed in gossip, didn’t notice the metre until the gearing was slowing down.

To my combined disappointment and relief we didn’t see the male child again until the string had pulled into Hogsmeade station. We ran into them on the platform as we milled around looking for the horseless equipage, and shared a giggle at their faces when they saw us.

“ Oh, ” said Peter, looking rather disappointed. “ You’ve changed into your robes. ”

“ Funny aboot tha & rsquo ;, ” said Mary. “ Considering we’re a’school nou an’we hae t’wear them. ”

“ Colder here, too, ” Charlotte pointed out, struggling to contain a grinning. “ It being a great deal further north, and night. ”

Sothis was also looking disappointed. “ I guess, ” he said, holding out a handwriting for Charlotte’s owl as she struggled to hang onto it in the bustle. It had been complaining towards the end of the train journey so she’d let it out of its cage in an endeavor to close it up for a while. “ Though maybe it’ll stay hot till the weekend. ” He looked at us hopefully.

Martha shot him a look. “ And what if it does ? ”

“ Calm down, Padfoot, ” came Remus’measured voice from behind us. “ You’ve had all summer to eye off young woman, how about you let these ace be for a while. ”

I froze involuntarily : I hadn’t even thought of that. I suddenly had all sorts of mental icon of what he’d been up to over the summertime, and to my consternation I was feeling rather overjealous of all the unknown female child he’d found attractive and possibly hooked up with. I even started looking surreptitiously at him to see whether I could see any telling planetary house, such as love bites or even lipstick print. Stupid, I know, especially considering most of the relevant parts would be covered by either his gown or his hair, but then again I didn’t always exactly see reasonableness where he was concerned. To my ever-increasing horror I was discovering that I was becoming more like Elvira every day, so to have my creative thinker off it I busied myself with letting Cerridwyn out of her coop so she could fly up to the owlery, and putting the empty coop with a nearby big money of short pants which would be collected and transported to the school later.

Sothis for his part looked like he had been about to say something but caught himself in time, settling instead for shrugging as Charlotte’s owl perched on his shoulder, above the chief of younger scholarly person, clearly not wanting to make its own way to the owlery just yet.

In the jumble to get into the carriages we found ourselves muddled up a bit with the other students, and as a final result no one ended up sitting with who they had thought they would, though I noticed that James was already pulling rank to get him and Lily in the Saame baby carriage ( “ Sorry, folks, but the brain Boy and Girl have to arrive together ” ). However, I lost Virgin Mary and Charlotte in the crowd and ended up in a carriage with Martha, Remus and Sothis, who was still carrying charlotte’s owl, which seemed to have taken a liking to him. Of class he’d be in my baby buggy. I couldn’t avoid him even when I was trying to.

“ How’s that hand going, Laura ? ” Canicula asked almost immediately once we sat down, fixing me with a smell of concern as he pushed his hair out of his eyes.

“ Right as rain, thanks, ” I said, somewhat surprised he’d remembered it was even hurt. To exhibit I moved it around and flexed it a few style and only winced once. “ I’ll be juggling Bludgers again in no time. ”

A smile crossed his human face briefly but was quickly replaced by the feeling of care he’d worn earlier. “ You should still get it looked at, ” he said seriously. “ I’ll take you up to see ma'am Pomfrey when we get there. Once I’ve given this rachis to Charlotte. ” He gestured at the dame on his articulatio humeri.

That was the last thing I needed. clip alone with Dog Star. pigeon hawk only knew what I might do without supervision, and I really didn’t want to block myself. Or him, for that matter. “ That’s okay, ” I said. “ I don’t think that’ll be necessary. ”

He shook his head. “ You shouldn’t be wandering around the castle alone after dark, ” he said, still without a clue of humour. “ Dumbledore stressed that to James in his letter of the alphabet, to realise sure enough everyone’s extra careful. ”

Uh oh. It looked like he’d meant it, he was really going to insist on accompanying me. Fortunately something occurred to me that meant I could avoid the trip to the hospital extension. “ It’s ticket, ” I said. “ And Madam Pomfrey will be at the fiesta anyway, I’ll just go and see her before we get started and she’ll have it fixed like a shot. ”

His expression cleared and I breathed an in suspiration of relief. “ Right, that should be okay, ” he acknowledged. “ We’ll save you a seat. ” And he looked pointedly at Martha and Remus who hurriedly agreed.

To my relief Martha changed the subject. “ So, how was your trunk ? ” she asked Sirius, a mischievous smiling on her face. “ Elvira nick any of your underwear ? ”

Ah, the benefits of being an ex, I thought. I would never give had the guts to ask him about his underclothing, be it in jocularity or otherwise.

He and Remus both laughed. “ Not that I know of, ” Dog Star said with a grin. “ I think we caught them just in time. ” His center were sparkling and I wasn’t sure just how grievous he was being.

Remus joined in. “ Though I did see Elvira stuffing something down the front of her robes, ” he said, his eyes dancing.

Sirius looked surprise. “ You did ? What was it ? ”

“ Probably anything with your home address on it, ” Remus said lightly. “ Or possibly that blow-up doll you carry around. I couldn’t be sure. ”

Sirius looked mortified until he realised Remus was joking, which wasn’t until Martha and I had joined in the laughter. Which I admit was probably due as a great deal to the look on his face as it was what Remus had said. I wasn’t for sure whether he actually had a blow-up doll and was annoyed with Remus for letting it strip, or whether Remus had made it up and he was worried we might take believed it, but for once I found I didn’t really care. I mean, if he did, then maybe he’d stay on the securities industry for longer and I might have a chance. ( Yeah, justly. I know, pie in the sky. But a missy can dream. )

Once we got to the castle and filed into the Great Hall I marched straight up to dame Pomfrey at the faculty mesa to have my mitt looked at. I wouldn’t have bothered usually except I didn’t want Dog Star bugging me about it ad infinitum and possibly taking matters into his own hands. Fortunately Madam Pomfrey, excellent at her job, had a quick look at it and fixed it in no clip at all, and I was back at the Gryffindor table, ready for whatever the new school class would hold back, well before the first-years came in for their Sorting.



33
The schooltime class started the following day pretty much without incident. We received our timetables from Professor McGonagall ( oddly enough, exactly the Saame as we’d had the previous twelvemonth ) and shuffled around to unlike schoolroom listening to different teacher give us the same spiel about how important newt were and how a great deal we would have to study and improve on last year in lodge to bye. It was all a rather fellow workaday by now and, while the classes were definitely getting harder, it wasn’t any worse than we had expected, though we had yet another Defence curriculum to bring to due to the individual teaching it changing yet again & ndash ; Professor Viridian had for some reason left the position and been replaced by a rather Danton True Young witch by the name of Perkins.

Early in the back week of term, Mary and I had our breakfast unexpectedly interrupted when James and Sirius, followed closely by Remus and dick, sat themselves down succeeding to us at the Gryffindor table. I was surprised, especially since Lily was sitting on the former position of us and there were spare keister nearby, but it appeared James for once had something else on his mind.

“ Morning, lady, ” he said airily from his spot next to me, reaching for a pile of home and doling them out to his supporter. “ Quidditch visitation are on this Friday, ” he added casually, looking at me. “ You coming ? ”

“ Why would I do that ? ” I asked, pouring myself some Orange River juice.

“ ejaculate on, ” said Sirius from inverse him, pushing his fuzz out of his eyes. “ I saw how well you throw. You’d be a breeze for the spare chaser’s spot. ”

“ She dodges darn well, too, ” Mary put in, helping herself to more kippered herring. “ Ye shoul’see her i’a snowball ficht. ”

I glared at her. I had no intent of trying out for the House Quidditch team, I knew I’d be useless and I wasn’t particularly interested in humiliating myself in front of the whole school. Or, more importantly, Sirius.

“ audio great, ” St. James said with a grin. “ You know I’m captain this yr ? What with Anna graduating and all. We could definitely do with someone with a in force arm on the team. ”

“ Thanks, but no thanks, ” I said. “ I’m really not the sporting type. ”

“ You don’t like Quidditch ? ” asked James, looking shocked.

Madonna almost choked on her kipper. “ Tha’s nae wha’she said, ” she pointed out. James looked bemused.

“ I love Quidditch ! ” I clarified, wondering that no one had mentioned to him that I’d been to all the game the former year. And every early class, for that issue. “ Didn’t have much choice, with my childhood. My dad’s a mad Quidditch fan. I think he was disappointed he had two girl and no boys, but he took us to games all over when we were kids. Still does, occasionally, when he has time, but not so very much lately’cause he thinks the plot might be targeted. We all went to the last World Cup, though. I just can’t actually play. ”

There I was again, talking too lots because I was nervous. Sirius often had that issue on me these Day. Thank good he was on the contrary side of the table, it was reassuring having that strong-arm barrier between us to check me doing anything I may later regret.

St. James the Apostle was grinning, having obviously decided to try out me on my Quidditch noesis. “ Who’s your squad then ? ” he asked, pouring himself a beverage.

“ Caerphilly trebuchet, ” I said immediately. “ We are Welsh, after all. ”

Sirius was smiling too. “’Dangerous’Dai Llewellyn, ” he said. “ Too bad they’ve been in a bit of a funk since he got eaten. ”

Saint Peter the Apostle laughed from his smudge on the former slope of James. “ Yeah, like twenty eld ago ! ” It was admittedly : since the Catapults had won the European backing in 1956 & ndash ; four age before I was even born & ndash ; they had gone downhill and stayed there.

I smiled grimly. “ I can’t help it if my team’s going through a bad & ndash ; er & ndash ; coevals. At least we’re not as bad as the Cannons. ” The Chudley Cannons had changed their motto about five years previously to ‘ Let’s just pass over our digit and Hope for the C. H. Best’. It didn’t seem to have worked yet.

“ Why not the Harpies ? ” asked Remus. “ If you’re from Cambria, you could bear picked either. And they’re in better form. ”

I shook my headway. “ Holyhead’s way up north, ” I explained, “ in Mona. I’m from just outside Cardiff. Caerphilly’s only five or ten sea mile from where I grew up. And there’s a big departure between south welt and north Wales. ” I recognised the caustic remark of talking about Holyhead as being ‘ way up north’when I was currently in Scotland, but I was certain they knew what I meant.

He nodded. “ right wing. I must accept, Welsh Black geographics isn’t one of my strong points. ”

“ Nor anyone else’s, who’s not from there, ” I agreed with a smile. I had noticed that a lot since moving to England & ndash ; English language people as a solid didn’t seem all that interested in the other role of the British Isles.

“ So why don’t you play ? ” asked James, never one to give up. Just ask Lily.

putz clearly agreed. “ Yeah, you can have, you can put off, what more do you need ? ”

“ fountainhead, yes, but I can’t do either of them very well if I’m on a broomstick, ” I said wryly, pouring myself a cup of coffee.

Saint James nodded. “ Right. I can’t say I’ve seen you fly, but I won’t argue with you, ” he said. “ I’ll let you off, just this once. ”

“ Besides, my ling’s still in patch in the bottom of my trunk, ” I went on, realising I was talking too much again. I’d have to feature a discussion to Mary about stopping me when I was doing that. “ I haven’t had a probability to reassemble it since we got back to school, and I don’t know that I’d have time before Fri. Not if I’m going to do it properly. ”

They all looked dumbstruck, and Virgin Mary giggled to herself across the tabular array at their reaction. “ I didn’t know you were a broomstick ace, ” Sothis said eventually, looking impressed. “ That is to say, not many mass can just adopt their broom apart and put it back together again. ”

James was nodding. “ Even I have trouble with that sometimes, ” he acknowledged, helping himself to more toast and electrocute eggs. “ It never seems to fly so well afterwards. ”

“ I imagine there’s a lo’ye dinna bed aboot us, ” Madonna said with a encompassing smile. I suspected she was thoroughly enjoying the conversation going on around her, including any discomfort I might receive been feeling, and it crossed my mind that I really should talk to her about that sadistic streak. She went on, still smiling. “ Laura here’s nae jus’a pretty face. ”

fountainhead, that was asking for a response. “ Not even a pretty face, you mean, ” I said, grinning at her, throwing back the line of products we always used with each other. “ Anyway, ” I continued, turning to James before anyone could point out on what I’d said, “ you are putting the tail assembly back on before you re-do the flying charm, and not after ? ”

“ Does it earn a difference ? ”

“ Of course it does, ” I said, a petty surprised he of all multitude didn’t earn that. “ If you do the charm first, the broom adjusts to what its feature of speech are at that clip. You need to reattach the tail first and clip it down and all that, and then re-do your good luck charm so that it applies to the whole thing. That should probably sort out any trouble you’re having. ”

James was looking flabbergasted. “ Are you sure you don’t want to join the Quidditch team ? ” he asked. “ Your broom cognition alone could get you a spot I’d think. ”

I laughed. “ Not a Leslie Townes Hope, sorry, James. Couldn’t play anyway, ” I went on. “ Dad’s really keen for me to do as well as possible during newt, so he doesn’t want me distracted by anything. significance, no extra-curricular stuff. Bea had the same rule. ”

“ Adviser, then, ” he suggested. “ Come and turn over us tips. ”

“ I’ll think about it. But only if it doesn’t interfere with NEWTs. ” I grinned. “ Can’t go against darling daddy’s rulings ! ”

“ By the way, ” Remus said, changing the national, “ we hear you’re going out with Caradoc Dearborn. Were you ever planning on telling us ? ”

“ Am I ? ” I asked, baffled. This was the offset I’d heard of it. “ That’s weird, you’d think I would have noticed. ” I suddenly realised what Remus had said. “ And why would I tell you something like that anyway ? ”

“ Because we’re your friends, ” James said easily, raising an eyebrow at Sirius across the board. “ But do we learn you to mean you’re not seeing Dearborn ? ”

“ Not that I know of, ” I said carelessly, having some more coffee. “ Where’d you hear that one ? ”

“ Not telling, ” said Sirius, pretending to lock in his back talk and throw off away the key. “ But that makes thing easier. ” He looked a little relieved, truth be told.

“ How so ? ” I asked, dreading the answer. The son clearly had something planned, and that could never be a good matter.

“ It means we don’t have to threaten to unchurch him into next week if he mucks you around, after what happened with Aubrey, ” James replied, shrugging as he piled a forkful of bacon and eggs into his mouth.

“ I don’t see you being so protective of Mary here, ” I said.

“ But she’s with Ogden, ” said Sirius, looking surprised. “ He’s fine, nothing wrong with him. ”

“ Nae any More, we brok’up, ” Virgin Mary pointed out. “ Ye havna find out’any rumor aboot my erotic love life ? ”

Saint James the Apostle looked like he was thinking about it as he swallowed his mouthful of food. “ Uh & ndash ; no, ” he said after a interruption. “ Just Laura’s. And Dearborn’s. Though if our selective information’s wrong, we don’t have to take exception her sanity for going out with a prefect. ”

“ You’re a fine one to sing, ” I shot back at him. “ school principal Boy & ndash ; and Quidditch captain, I might add & ndash ; who’s pining after the oral sex lady friend. And you have a trouble with me dating an authority figure ? ”

Sirius, with a taste of food, was trying rather unsuccessfully not to laugh, and in the process knocked his forking onto the flooring.

“ Doesn’t issue anyway, ” King James I said nonchalantly, ignoring my jibe. “ If it’s not happening, we don’t need to do anything about it. ”

“ Well, it’s definitely not happening, ” I agreed. “ While there’s been a lot to take in since full term started, I’m sure I would think of if I’d been snogging someone on a regular basis. Especially Caradoc & ndash ; he’s really not my type. ” I winced involuntarily. While Caradoc was a decent enough bloke, his pale hair and eyes, bulblike lips and faint mentum all distinctly turned me off. “ Besides, ” I went on vaguely, helping myself to more Francis Bacon and fried tomatoes, “ I’m not allowed to go out with anyone this year anyway, so it’s a bit of a moot point. ”

This was clearly a surprisal for them & ndash ; while the girls in my year knew the storey, it was obvious the son didn’t. James’fork stopped about two in from his oral fissure and sagged in his hand, its bacon and eggs dropping back onto his plate. Sirius, who had ducked beneath the table to retrieve his branching, hit his header on his way back up. Peter accidentally snorted some tea he had raised to his sass at the time, and even the normally composed Remus looked surprised, though why any of them would get cared anyway was a bit beyond me.

Peter found his voice first. “ What do you mean, you’re not allowed to go out with anyone ? ”

“ Same as the Quidditch, ” I explained with a shrug. “ No extra-curricular natural process. That includes boyfriends. ”

Mary was looking at the boys scornfully. “ Ye didna have it away ? An’ye forebode yerselves her friends ! ”

“ Well, ” Remus said evenly, “ if no one tells us something, we can’t reasonably be expected to know it. Laura here obviously didn’t believe it was worth mentioning. ”

“ Slipped my judgment, ” I said glibly as I tried to corner an errant piece of Lycopersicon esculentum that was evading my fork.

“ You’re not going to go along to that, though, are you ? ” asked James, his eyes flicking to Dog Star, who was still rubbing his principal where it had hit the mesa.

“ Yeah, how would he witness out anyway ? ” Sirius added. It was a bit hard to hear him as he was now concentrating on pouring Lycopersicon esculentum sauce over his scrambled bollock and didn’t kick upstairs his head. “ It’s not like he’s got any spies here, and what he doesn’t know won’t injure him. ”

“ Well, I’ll cross that bridge if and when I come to it, ” I said, having successfully captured my bit of tomato. “ Though I don’t anticipate it will be much of an outcome anyway. ” I stole a glance at Canicula when I said it & ndash ; it was true, but one Word of God from him and I would induce abandoned any approximation of following Dad’s normal. Hopefully he didn’t realize that though, I couldn’t stand the chagrin.

This metre it was James who dropped his fork and stooped beneath the table to pick it up. I suspected he was trying not to laugh, as his articulatio humeri were shaking so much he knocked my knee as he scrounged around trying to find the perverse utensil. Eventually he resurfaced, face a bit red, glasses askew, and wordlessly reached for more eggs. For the life of me I couldn’t work out what was so funny.

“ And, on the hopeful side, ” I went on, opting to cut this little show, “ at least I won’t have to go into ma'am Puddifoot’s again ! ”

Sirius groaned with me. “ Hear, hear, ” he said with feeling. “ Clio dragged me in there at the start of the year. It was appalling ! ”

“ Wasn’t it though, ” I agreed, shuddering. “ Chintz and floral and webbed doilies everywhere & ndash ; it was like going to granny’s but without the serious cake, and far more than claustrophobic. ”

Mary got my aid by pushing her empty plate away from her. “ I’m done, ” she said, looking at me. “ Shall we ? ”

“ Why not, ” I agreed, hastily swallowing the last of my bacon and standing up with her.

“ See ye aroond, lads, ” she said airily, waving as we made our way out of the Great residence. The boys waved us off and then followed Epistle of James as he shuffled down a couple of shoes to where Lily was.

Mary looked at me once we’d left the hall and were heading towards the transfiguration classroom. “ I though’I’d ripe ge’ye oot o’there an’all, ” she said with a grin. “ Ye were gettin’a wee bi’carried away. ”

“ It took you that long to notice ? ” I asked sharply. “ You could get stopped me when I was rambling on about Quidditch or brooms. Did myself no party favor there. ”

She laughed. “ I’m nae so indisputable, ” she grinned. “ James wa’pretty impressed, he micht e’en encourage it nou. ”

“ Great, ” I said glumly. “ We’ve convinced James, now all we need to do is convince Sothis. That should be a breeze. I mean, it’s not like I’ve got any contender or anything. ”

“ Dinna bea’yerself up aboot it, ” she scolded. “ An’ye micht hae half th’struggle won. Everyone knows tha’if there’s one person Sirius listens t & rsquo ;, it’s Saint James. Lapp as Canicula is th’only one King James will listen t’. So I think ye were jus’helpin’yer chances, if anythin’. ”

I looked at her, considering. “ You know, Mary, you might just be on to something there. ”

She grinned. “ An’if naethin’else, ” she went on with a wink, “ ye’re one up on Elvira an’th’fan lodge, ” she went on.

I raised an eyebrow. “ How ? ”

“ A’leas’he talks t’ye. ”

I nodded, half a grinning hybridizing my aspect & ndash ; that much at least I had to concede.

As it turned out, it appeared that the male child’information source about me actually was unspoilt, it was just a bit premature, as Caradoc Dearborn did indeed ask me out as we left Herbology later that week. Like I’d said, he really wasn’t my case in any way, shape or manikin & ndash ; Sirius he definitely was not & ndash ; so using Dad’s rule was a upright way to turn him down without hurting him too much. I was surprised, however, that it had come up so quickly, and decided that was probably what James had found so amusing that day at the breakfast table.

****

That weekend I settled in to get my region of the dorm the way I liked it, putting up my Catapults poster, Gryffindor and Welshman rugby standard on the rampart, and some photos and books from home on my bedside cabinet. I had also set aside the needed hour or two to get my broom ready for the school twelvemonth & ndash ; as I had told James, there was no chance I would bear been able to do that properly before his Quidditch trial run were scheduled on the late Fri.

Once I’d put my Scots heather back together and re-adjusted the appeal on it I felt much better. While I was never going to try out for the Quidditch team, it did intend that I could take it for a twirl whenever things were getting too very much for me, which I had heard could encounter a lot during one’s NEWT yr. Or whenever I’d been seeing too much of Sothis and needed the equivalent weight of a cold shower, which I had the feeling would soon be getting to be more and more often.

However, while going to or from the solitary ride I did take, I would occasionally get interrupted by James II and several other Gryffindor Quidditch role player, who had got it into their heads ( probably thanks to James ) that I was the somebody to ask for aid whenever they had any heather trouble. While I didn’t listen helping them out, I preferred it when they asked me once I’d got back from my drive rather than on my way out, and more than once I’m afraid I even snapped at someone who had got me at the wrong time. ( I blamed Sirius, of course & ndash ; if he hadn’t got me into such a spin I wouldn’t have had to re-set myself so often. )

St. James also got it into his head that he wasn’t going to let me forget my promise to teach him to drive. No affair how many times I pointed out that we didn’t exactly have a car at our disposal, he refused to give up the idea and insisted that as well as Canicula, who I had also promised ( like I could block ), I should also be teaching Remus and shaft. In the end, as a way of shutting him up, I wrote to Mum and got her to send me half a XII transcript of the Highway codification so I could give it to the boys for some background reading. Like my mother I thought it an excellent idea that they have some understanding of the road rules before attempting to get behind the roulette wheel of a car. The ploy worked in as a good deal as they stopped bugging me about teaching them until they had studied the manual & ndash ; which, in the case of James and Dog Star at least, seemed to take approximately fifteen minutes. Oh well. It had seemed like a good mind at the time.

In the end, it turned out to be Lily who finally got James off my spine, at to the lowest degree as far as driving deterrent example were concerned. After we had been back almost a month she was getting increasingly frustrated.

“ I never thought I’d say this, ” she complained during spell one day, “ but James is too much of a gentleman. ”

Charlotte dropped her wand in surprise. “ What did you just say ? ”

“ He’s too practically of a gentleman, ” Lily repeated, trying in vain to build the Gryffindor lion on her parchment change shape and replicate. “ I’ve been waiting since we got back to schooltime for him to ask me out, or even throw some sorting of lewd commentary that I could react to, and he hasn’t done it yet. He keeps on being genteel and respectful and concentrating on psyche Boy duties. I’m starting to drop off patience. ”

I laughed, forgetting the verge apparent motion I was supposed to be practicing. “ You’re right, Lily, we never thought you’d say that either. ”

“ Why dinna ye ask him oot ? ” Mary asked reasonably. “ It’s nae lik’he micht say no. ”

“ I don’t know, ” Lily said nervously. “ I’ve never asked a boy out before. How do you do it ? ”

“ simple, ” said Martha. “ You go up to them and ask if they want to go out with you. ”

“ Ah, but we’re not all as boldface as you, ” Charlotte pointed out, casting what she probably thought was a furtive glance at Remus.

“ Yes, I don’t know if I could do that, ” Lily agreed.

“ Ladies, ” came professor Flitwick’s voice, “ more practicing, less chatting. ” He came over to us. “ How are your Protean Charms going ? ”

I looked him in the eye and, muttering the spell he’d taught us, changed my Gryffindor lion to a Ravenclaw eagle. All the other lions on my parchment also obediently changed shape, mimicking the original. Flitwick blinked in surprise.

“ My apologies. Carry on, carry on, ” he said, and shuffled off to inspect the girls at the Ravenclaw tabular array.

“ goodness one, Laura, ” Martha muttered under her breath. “ Now, can you show up us how you did that ? ”

****

As it turned out, Lily did throw it in her. That evening after supper, she walked right over to James in the rough-cut way and looked him in the eye. “ James, can I make a word please ? outside. drumhead’business. ”

King James I looked surprise but nodded and followed her. After an hr they hadn’t returned, and we were all getting More than a piddling fishy.

Suddenly I had an approximation and, working up some courage, headed over to where the boys were sitting in their common spot by the flak. “ Do you know where they’ve gone ? ” I asked quietly, taking a rear on James’vacuous armchair.

“ No thought, ” said Sothis, looking up from what appeared to be a Muggle motorcycle magazine. Ah, I thought, Madonna had guessed right about whose bed was whose. “ She said it was Heads’business organisation, though. ”

“ head’clientele my foot, ” I snorted. “ If they’re still talking I’ll eat a Hippogriff. Have you got that map of yours handy ? ”

Remus looked vaguely surprise, but fished around in his bag and pulled out the tremendous bit of parchment. “ I solemnly swear that I am up to no good, ” he said, spreading it out on the seat next to him and tapping it with his scepter. Once the map appeared on the parchment, he scanned it quickly. “ They’re in that old classroom just down the Asaph Hall, ” he said. “ The one opposite the statue of Lachlan the Lanky. ”

“ Hmm, ” I mused. “ I guess we can’t borrow that Cloak of his without asking, can we ? Just to make a peek, I mean. ”

“ You’re not proposing spying on the header Boy and Girl, are you ? ” Dog Star asked with mock outrage, though he was smiling. “ You can’t do that. ”

“ Of course we can, ” Peter piped up. “ He’d do it to us. ”

“ That’s genuine, ” Remus conceded. “ But no, Laura, we can’t take up his own Cloak to spy on him. That would be beyond the boundaries of honour. ”

“ I hadn’t thought of it like that, ” I admitted. “ You’re right on. I guess we’ll just ingest to sit here and meditate on what they’ve been doing for the preceding hour then. ”

“ Peter will do it, won’t you Wormtail ? ” Sirius said suddenly, pushing his hair out of his eyes. “ He doesn’t need a Cloak. ”

I looked at Peter, surprised and Sir Thomas More than a little confused, but he just smiled an almost malevolent smile and nodded. “ Okay. I’ll go. ” He climbed out of the portrait hole and was back within a minute. “ Uh, Laura, what exactly was it that you thought they were up to ? ” he asked, looking slyly at me.

“ If I had to judge, I’d say they were giving their spit a goodness exercise without saying a give-and-take, ” I said archly, leaning back in the armchair and trying not to look at Canicula. I had tensed up again, inwardly thanking Merlin that we were sitting on break up chairs and therefore weren’t in all probability to occur into any physical contact lens.

“ Got it in one, ” he said, smiling again. Sirius and Remus grinned maniacally and high-fived each other with gusto.

“ About bloody time, ” said Remus.

“ Yeah, hopefully he’ll stop pining now, ” added Canicula, who then frowned slightly. “ Though he’ll probably go all soppy and revolting and won’t spend any time with us any more. ” He looked at me suddenly with new pastime. “ How did you make love ? ”

“ You forget, I percentage a student residence with her, ” I said, getting up from my chair. “ Thanks, hombre. I’d estimable plowshare the news. ” And I went back to our pet table by the window, smiling broadly.

“ So ? ” Madonna asked immediately. “ Where are they ? ” The fille had obviously guessed why I had been talking to the boy by the attack.

“ human race’s cock-a-hoop snog-fest, apparently, ” I said. “ In an evacuate classroom down the hall. ”

They all got the Sami maniacal grin that Sirius and Remus had worn. “ Brilliant ! ” said Martha. “ So she did get the guts up. ” And, abandoning our homework, we spent a good one-half hour speculating on what would happen with Lily and Saint James from here on in.

Lily didn’t come back until after we had gone up to the dorm to get ready for bed. She looked deliriously happy and more than a minuscule tousle, and was obviously hoping we’d gone to slumber already and wouldn’t quiz her : the look that came to her face when she saw me in the lav and Charlotte still getting changed into her pyjamas was one of dashing hopes.

Martha had seen it too. “ Sorry, Lils, you were sprung, ” she said with a liberal smile. “ What happened ? ”

Lily pouted. “ If we were sprung, you shouldn’t take me to tell you, ” she pointed out.

“ All we know is that you and King James I were snogging each other senseless, ” I said, putting my toothbrush away and coming back into the dormitory. “ What we don’t know is how long that took to happen. ”

Lily sighed, sitting down on her bed. “ About five seconds, actually, ” she admitted. “ I took him to an abandoned classroom, and he looked at me with those heart and said, ‘ Right, what’s up ? & rsquo ;, and I just kissed him. I couldn’t help myself. ”

Mary raised her eyebrows. “ Couldna aid yerself ? Tha’was why ye go’him oot o’th’mutual room i’th’firs’plaza, wasna it ? ”

“ Yes, all right, ” Lily said. “ I wasn’t quite for sure how to go about it, you know, asking him out, and it just seemed the easiest way. And he didn’t seem to mind. ”

“ Of path he didn’t, ” said Charlotte, who had finished putting her pyjamas on. “ Did you actually blab at all ? ”

“ You know, we did, ” Lily admitted, sounding surprised herself. “ For age. In between snogging, of course. He’s a large kisser. ” She paused for a bit, smiling to herself with a moony facial expression on her brass. “ I really don’t know why I waited this long. We could have had all summer. ” And she lay back on her bed, looking at the canopy above her head.

“ I think she’s down for the tally, lady friend, ” said Martha, still smiling. “ How about we leave her to her air castle for a bit and get some sleep ? And, in the morning, I’ll coordinate a brass for that classroom down the residence hall to commemorate this momentous social occasion & ndash ; it has taken six years, after all. ” She grinned mischievously while Lily made a dim movement to fuddle her pillow at her, but didn’t follow through.

“ I micht storage area ye t’that, ” smiled Mary, settling into bed herself and turning off the lamp closest to her. “ Nou goo’nicht everyone. ” And we all settled down into our beds and pretended not to notice the occasional content sigh coming from Lily’s counselling.




Author’s note : Ah, Lily and Henry James finally getting together. I wanted them to feature as long a sentence as a duet as I could realistically bring off within the narrative, so about a month after school went back seemed reasonable. And James, of course, had finally got the steer and backed off a bit to give Lily room, so it was up to her to make the first relocation … I’m smiling at the very thought.



34
We saw very little of Lily and James I over the side by side few solar day. That is, they made it to class and mealtimes and the like, but they were blazing by their absence from the common elbow room after supper, and they spoke to very few citizenry besides each early. We didn’t really mind, as this sort of affair was par for the track for any new family relationship, though we did notice the boys initially seemed a little at sea at the temp loss of their friend, apparently unsure what to do when he wasn’t around.

The couple in interrogation, however, were both obviously so deliriously happy that no one even thought of begrudging them anything, and before hanker Sothis, Remus and Peter seemed to get used to the new state of affairs and went back to wreaking the periodic havoc among themselves. Even the half dozen or so girls who made up the James IV ceramicist fan guild appeared to accept that they had well and truly lost their probability. In fact, the entirely person who really seemed very put out by the relationship was Severus Snape.

To no one’s surprise, the seating arranging in Potions changed after Lily and James got together, in that Charlotte replaced her at my mesa. While something like this would normally possess had no encroachment on the division at all, especially since they were both members of the Slug order and were therefore treated indulgently by the teacher, it was insufferable not to notice that Snape was less than thrilled with what had happened. If expression could belt down Henry James would get been dead twenty dollar bill times before the succeeding class even started and, while he put on a show of ignoring Severus’repeated attempt to sabotage him, I had a sneaking misgiving that he was just storing up each incident in his remembering, to exact retaliation at a belated time. If nothing else I was impressed with the strength of his Shield Charm, which stayed intact no matter how many jinx were hurled at it.

This sort of carry-on, which continued throughout the term, was naturally a rather significant distraction for the rest of the class. This was a bit of an issue as the potions we were supposed to be making would induce been difficult enough even if we’d been able to give it our entire assiduity. In truth I was feeling Lily’s personnel casualty rather significantly, and Charlotte was feeling the loss of James and Sirius, as we had both relied on their expertise to get us through the increasingly complicated potions Slughorn was having us make. Leda Madley and Al Jorkins, the Hufflepuffs we shared a table with, weren’t of nearly the same gauge as Lily and couldn’t supply much by way of assistance, so we struggled through on our own.

“ What do we do next ? ” Charlotte asked one day as we stumbled our way through the program line for a Blood Replenishing Potion.

“ Powdered moonstone, I think, ” I said, pulling out an elastic and tying my hair back to get it out of the way before picking up my copy of Advanced Potion-Making once again. “ We’ve added the crocodile centre, right ? Well, that’s the last of the base ingredient. So we stir it three prison term anticlockwise and then four times clockwise, and put in the moonstone one teaspoon at a time, stirring six times clockwise in between each spoonful. ” I looked at her and grimaced. “ This is a nightmare. ”

“ No contention from me there, ” Charlotte agreed, a look of absorption on her grimace as she followed my instructions, before looking intently at her own book. “ Oh, we need some nettles, do you want me to get them ? ” And she took off towards the students’store cupboard in hunt of promote ingredients, taking a rather full berth around Lily and James I’tabular array on the off chance she might get in the way of a Snape jinx.

Eventually we finished our potions and they even looked pretty much like they were supposed to. Maybe a year of sitting with Lily during this form really had made me beneficial at it. I lined up with everyone else when the grade was over to hand over my sample distribution to be marked.

“ Thank you, Miss William Wilkie Collins, ” Professor Slughorn said rather absently as I gave him my sample distribution and hoisted my bag over my shoulder in facility to leave the dungeon. Hmm, Tom Collins. Not that far off the grade, Slughorn definitely was improving. At least we had the flop identification number of syllables, which wasn’t always the case. And at least he acknowledged my existence, which again wasn’t always something I could rely on.

Heading back upstair Sirius fell into tone beside me, his hands deep in his air hole and a look of disapproval on his face. “ Did I hear that right ? ” he asked almost angrily. “ He’s been teaching you for over six eld and he can’t even get your name right ? ”

I laughed. “ It’s pretty laughable, really, he keeps trying to make me Irish Gaelic. Collins, Maureen Catherine Connolly, Carroll, Connor … ”

He still looked annoyed, his grey eyes flashing. “ But that’s not good enough, he should know who you are by now. ” He seemed to be taking the whole thing far more seriously than was warranted & ndash ; after all, it had been happening for years and had turned into such a secret plan for me that if it stopped now I’d probably be disappointed.

“ Not him, ” I said, pulling my pilus out of its ponytail and stowing the elastic in my scoop. “ I’m not in the lick Club, which means I’m not important enough to worry about. You know he only picks the brightest and the best-connected. ” I let out a giggle. “ Maybe I should let slip that my first cousin married Dai Llewellyn’s nephew last summer, that might get me in. ”

He looked at me curiously. “ Did she ? I didn’t know that ! ”

I shrugged. “ That’s probably because I never told anyone. It’s not important. ”

He grinned. “ Prongs might differ with you. Anything Quidditch-related, he wants to know. ”

“ You think ? ” I asked, trying not to detect how that grinning always affected me, trying not to tense up too much. Sometimes it felt like a perpetual battle. I took a bass breather, re-composing myself. “ Dangerous Dai’s dead, so it’s not like he can get me free ticket or a rebate at Quality Quidditch Supplies. ”

He laughed that bark-like laugh of his. “ You have got the measure of him, haven’t you, Laura ? You’re right, that probably is what would interest him the most. ”

“ In which sheath, ” I pointed out, “ there’s not a good deal point in my mentioning it. Which has been my scheme all along, you might notice. ” I had realised that I couldn’t escape him & ndash ; it was lunch sentence so we were both going to the Great residence, and if I tried to do something else it would give birth been really obvious I was trying to avoid him.

He had a bit of an unusual look on his face. “ You know, there are a lot of kidskin at this school who would be making sure everyone knew they had a connection to Dai Llewellyn, however tenuous. You really don’t like drawing attention to yourself, do you ? ”

I thought about that. “ I don’t recollect it’s that, necessarily. I think that if I’m going to consume people’s attention, it’s expert if it’s for something that’s actually about me, not about random relations. ”

He was pipe down for a bit, apparently thinking. “ I can infer that, ” he said eventually, frowning slightly. “ It’s an extension of what you said to me the other year. Don’t judge somebody on the bad stuff their family has done. And don’t take recognition for something somebody else in your family has done either. Is that right ? ”

Again he had surprised me by his insight, not to mention his memory, considering when I’d said that to him ( in fifth year ) he’d barely acknowledged that I existed. “ That’s exactly right, ” I agreed. We had reached the Great Hall by now and filed in for lunch, me trying my hardest to disregard his proximity, his olfactory modality, his handwriting resting on my back as we made our way to the Gryffindor table. What was the musical score again ? Quivering wreck 35 ; Laura 0. Or something like that.

Mary, who didn’t take Potions, was already there and had saved me a backside in between her and Martha. Thanking her inwardly for ensuring I didn’t have to sit next to Canicula, I climbed into the gap. Canicula took a blot on the former side of Mary, and James, Lily, Remus and Queen City soon filed in and occupied seats across the board with tool. Blessed Virgin leaned in close to my ear.

“ Wha’s he bin sayin’? Ye’re drooling. ”

I shut my mouth very quickly and mopped it with a nappy. “ zip much, ” I said quietly. “ Could do with a Calluna vulgaris ride though. ” She shot a very knowing look at me and changed the subject field.

“ We’ve bin up i’th’common way an’all, ” she said more loudly, indicating Martha and Peter. “ They’ve announced th’nex’Hogsmeade visit. Las’weekend i’October. ”

Lily nodded. “ We considered having it not go ahead at all after the Dementors last year, but Dumbledore said he’s done a peril judgement and he thinks it should be safe enough. ” She looked at Henry James fondly and he put an arm around her.

I’d forgotten that the headspring Boy and girl organised dates for Hogsmeade visit as voice of their duties, and part of me was a minuscule storm they had managed to achieve anything at all since they had got together. Martha, apparently thinking along the Lapp line of work, was smiling broadly.

“ So you two have actually been doing piece of work ? I thought that was just an excuse to hole up together in an empty elbow room for a while ! ”

Lily blushed a little but James II took it in his footstep. “ Of course it was an excuse. We’re just using up the plans Lily had made at the start of the year to fix it look like we’re doing something productive. right thing she’s so organised, really. ”

Sirius grinned. “ I thought you said what you were doing was rich. Are you saying you lied, mate ? ”

“ Depends on how you define it, really, ” said Remus, who appeared to be resolutely not looking at Charlotte next to him. A grin was dancing around the quoin of his mouth. “ I’m sure they think it’s very generative. Whether or not Dumbledore would agree is, of course, another matter. ” Lily and Epistle of James both laughed, Lily a trivial self-consciously, as we all settled in for lunch.

****

even though Lily was undoubtedly taking up much of his time and certainly about of his thinking, and there was a noticeable decrease in his pranking that we were trusted could be dated from the day they got together, Epistle of James was still somehow managing to do his other responsibility, including those associated with captaining the Gryffindor Quidditch team. And he hadn’t forgotten that I had suggested I might be induced to blab to his players about broom handling and maintenance and so, rather predictably, kept insisting that I attend Quidditch practices occasionally, being rather keen on the idea that I give peak to his team all at once, rather than on the ad hoc footing on which I was currently doing it ( that is, whenever mortal cornered me after I’d been out for a ride ). Unfortunately, most of the practice Sessions were on Clarence Shepard Day Jr. where I had a passel of homework to end up, or a detention for hexing someone, or some early intellect that meant I couldn’t make it. Finally towards the end of October he managed to find out a time that suited me, so I agreed to go down and have a New World chat to anyone who wanted help.

I was rather storm when, on my way out of the portraiture hole at the put clip, I was assailed by Sirius who insisted he was coming with me. “ James II’society, ” he said almost a piffling smugly. “ He doesn’t want you wandering around the castle or the grounds alone after dark, which it could well be by the prison term you’re finished. ” He walked downstairs with me, hands in his pockets, moving with an casual grace that I could never hope to emulate no issue how laborious I tried. Great, I thought, watching him. Way to make a girl smell inadequate.

I scowled at him, an military action that was most probably influenced by my aforementioned feeling of inadequacy. “ Anyone would cerebrate I was helpless, ” I complained. “ What does he think’s going to encounter to me ? ”

He shrugged. “ Search me. ” Ooh, I thought involuntarily, can I ? No, Laura, nidus. I forced my brass into a more serious expression as he continued. “ Though we’re playing Slytherin in the first biz, so he might be worried they’ll have a go at his secret weapon. ”

I laughed. “ And that is ? ”

Dog Star looked surprised. “ You, of course. The go-to girl for all things broom-related. Apparently our Seeker has been having problem with her broom jerking towards the left when she goes too fast. Which I dare say can be a problem if the Snitch is on her right. ”

“ Hmmm. ” I thought about that, glad to take in a distraction from Canicula who had to be walking finisher to me than necessity. What was he going to do, physically shield me if someone tried to round ? “ I think she might have a Cleansweep Six. In which case there’s not much we can do about it, they all seem to do that after a few years. But I’ll have a expression at it. ” I looked up at him suddenly. “’effort I’m guessing we want to wee-wee indisputable the Slytherin seeker doesn’t get the Snitch. ”

He laughed that bark-like jape of his. “ You’re not wrong. If Reg gets one up on me this betimes in the year I’ll never hear the end of it. ”

“ I can just see the Daily prophesier headlines now, ” I said with a wry smiling. “ Slytherin triumphant over Gryffindor : black phratry feud magnifies. They’ll be up here before you know it, pestering you for an interview. ”

He laughed again. “ Yep, definitely front page material, ” he agreed. “ Complete with an in-depth exhibition & eacute ; with my dear mellisonant mother telling them what a letdown I am. With material like that, she’ll be able-bodied to keep going for months. ”

“ In that shell, there will sustain to be a spinoff book released as well, ” I said, getting into the golf stroke of it, “ just to John Cash in on the story’s popularity. ” Elvira and the fan nine would be lapping it all up, I thought, even if no one else did.

“ You’re right, ” he said in a grievous voice, though I was certain his eyes were sparkling. I didn’t quite confidence myself to look into them, though, so I couldn’t be certain. “ What do you reckon, Fantastic black and Where to get hold Them ? Though finding a fantastic total darkness would fill some doing, I dare say. ”

I laughed despite myself, thinking that it was really just a pillow slip of knowing where to look. “ Or Tales of Beedle the Black. ”

“ That could work, ” he agreed thoughtfully. “ And I don’t doubt my dear old mum has some lovely tales to assure. narration of the Two sidekick, one of whom is unworthy of the name, that character of thing. ”

I felt a bit bad for bringing it all up now & ndash ; he was talking lightly but I was sure there was still some latent discontent in there that his category had abandoned him. And if what he was saying was true, if his mother had constantly been on about what a letdown he was, then that just made it that much uncollectible. He must have noticed my reserve, because before I realised what was happening he had an arm around my shoulders and was giving me a squeezing.

“ Don’t worry about it, Laura, it’s ancient history, ” he said reassuringly. “ I’m well used to what they say about me by now. ”

“ Okay. ” I gave a bit of a terse smile, noticing that my berm had rather predictably tensed from the contact with him. I was also very cognizant that he still had his arm around me, which had to be an supervising on his part, and twisted my trunk a bit in an attempt to shift his hand. He realised what I was doing and promptly let go, and I felt a combination of disappointment and assuagement. However, I also still felt bad for talking so blithely about something that was bound to be a piddling upsetting to him ( when did I become so insensitive ? ) and decided to change the subject. “ Anyway, ” I went on, “ are you sure you should be coming out at all tonight ? ”

He looked storm. “ Why shouldn’t I ? ”

“ Put it this way, ” I said, “ I’m not the one who got in trouble with McGonagall this morning time for not handing in my Transfiguration homework. ”

“ Oh, that. ” He shrugged, looking completely unconcerned. “ She’ll keep. ”

I looked at him curiously. “ That’s not like you, though, ” I pointed out. “ Normally you’d hired man up something, even if you thought it was rubbish. ”

“ Yes, well, ” he said, looking a little uncomfortable, “ I had something on my mind at the time and couldn’t really concentrate. ”

Again, not like him. I was getting more and more curious. “ Good or bad ? ”

He looked even more uncomfortable. “ Um … both, I guess. ”

“ Did you want to spill about it ? ” I was feeling more sympathetic than accusatory by now ; he didn’t usually let affair get to him very much as far as I was aware so it was all a little odd.

He hesitated. “ No, probably not, ” he said eventually, raking his fingers through his pilus distractedly. “ It’s zippo, just a radar target. Don’t worry about it, I’ll deal with it. ”

Obviously now was not the sentence & ndash ; strange, if he was glad to discuss his family but not whatever this was. Anyway, I let it slip. “ Fine. Just don’t do it again, you do enough detentions as it is without being lumped with one for not doing your homework. ”

He laughed, all irritation apparently gone. “ Yes, you’re right, ” he smiled, looking at me. “ If I have to serve a hold I’d much rather it was for something I enjoyed doing. ” He changed the subject abruptly. “ Hey, what are you doing for Hogsmeade ? ”

I looked at him, a little taken aback. He had a riding habit of sudden dependent changes like that and it took some getting used to. “ Hogsmeade ? The girls and I were going to go robes shopping. Why ? ”

He shrugged, his middle on the marble stairway which we were fast approaching. “ Oh, nil. Just wondered, that’s all. ” Or, I thought, more like you were just making small public lecture to get away from talking about whatever it was that stopped you from doing your homework. Sometimes he was just a little too transparent.

Eventually we made it to the Quidditch pitch and I got my own Scots heather out of the broom shed in casing I needed to evidence anything. King James pounced on me as soon as I reappeared.

“ Right, you’re here, ” he said. “ I thought you might suffer … forgotten. ” He grinned at Sirius who suddenly looked a footling discomfited.

I laughed. “ How could I possibly bury when you keep bugging me about it ? ” I asked.

“ I don’t bug you, ” James protested, looking hurt. “ I just thought you might want to do your bit in helping your team win the Cup this class. Despoina, ” he called to the Seeker who was flying in dress circle ( anticlockwise ) about twenty feet above us, “ can you come here for a bit ? ”

Persephone Alderton was a very short, slight senior lady friend who had an unearthly bent for finding and catching small objective, such as Snitches. She looked a piddling odd succeeding to James, who was at least six human foot and rather all-encompassing, but she was doubtless used to that by now and wasn’t in the least intimidated. She came to ground level immediately and strolled over, her broom over her berm.

I’d been right, it was a Cleansweep Six which had a bad habit of veering off to one incline after about five long time. There wasn’t much anyone could do about it, but we did remove the flying Charm and re-cast it, which might confound the heather into thinking it was a bit New and stop the swerving for a little while at to the lowest degree. If nothing else it was worth a try. The other thing worth trying was putting the cushioning appealingness on both sides of the broom, so if it did start jerk towards one direction and she needed to go in another, she could go around the heather while still in flight and use the fault to her advantage.

Next in origin was Fin Quigley, the sixth-year Beater, whose Shooting adept wasn’t responding to direction changes as well as it should receive been. Unfortunately the best affair for this was a perfect disassembly of the Calluna vulgaris and starting again from scratch, which took a good hour or two when done properly, and therefore having it fixed before practice wasn’t really an pick. I did offering to help him do it at another fourth dimension, which St. James the Apostle overheard and promptly included himself in the party for broomstick assemblage instructions.

Finally Jasper Stimpson, a third-year who had just been appointed Keeper, came to me. He had a steel new nimbus cloud XV century, a natural endowment from his parents for making the squad, but wasn’t confident on how best to fly it. This however wasn’t really my area and I sent him to James, who had the Saami broom and was much undecomposed qualified to answer those kind of questions. I could see that young Jasper was rather intimidated by his master, but if they were going to be on the same team all year then the Sooner he got over that the better it would be.

Throughout the hale operation Sirius had been sitting on the land propped up against the broom shed, watching the transactions and clearly waiting for me to finish. It hadn’t really clicked until that point that I needed escorting back to the rough-cut room as well, but I couldn’t exactly tell him to take off before I lost all possession. ( Maybe, I considered, if I just did that it would make biography leisurely as he’d be bound to stave off me afterwards, but I still couldn’t face the rejection. Yes, I was a coward. And I didn’t want to mislay him as a friend. )

I looked at him once Jasper had gone to King James I, my broom in my hired man. “ Sirius, do you mind waiting a bit longer ? I feel like taking a spin. ”

He looked surprised but nodded. “ Sure. Whatever you like. ”

A flying, furious trip around the pitch was exactly what I needed, I had decided. I was for certain to be much better behaved around Dog Star if I got any excess tenseness and defeat out of my scheme before he took me back to the palace. I got onto my broom and took off firmly, taking myself rather higher and wide of the mark than the practicing actor so I wouldn’t be in the way, and doing a few laps of the pitch while I let off a bit of steam. My Nimbus One chiliad and One, while not as fast or durable as James’and Jasper’s Fifteen one C, was still a right broom and could get up to a hundred geographical mile an hr in near conditions. After respective laps ( or maybe a few dozen ), I felt composure enough to steer towards the reason and was putting my ling away in the disgorge when I heard James’phonation behind me.

“ Oi, Laura, ” he said accusingly, having also obviously just landed, “ I thought you said you couldn’t fly. ”

“ I can fly, ” I protested, looking at him over my shoulder. “ I just have to keep both paw on the Calluna vulgaris to be able to do it. Which means I’m turd at Quidditch, ” I went on, correctly interpreting his look as I turned to face him.

His brow furrowed. “ Sounds like an excuse to me, ” he said. “ If you didn’t want to play, why didn’t you just say so ? ”

I smiled. “ I did say so, if you recall, ” I pointed out. “ And I also said that I can’t stroke or becharm very well if I’m on a broom. Because I can only fly two-handed. ”

James still didn’t look convert but fortunately Sirius joined the conversation on my side. “ Lay off her, Prongs, ” he said easily. “ She did what you asked her to. ”

James just raised his brow at Sothis and shook his head. “ That’d be aright, gang up on me, ” he grumbled. “ Though the team’s looking all rightfulness, I guess I shouldn’t complain. ”

I smiled again. “ Good. Now, if you’ll rationalize us, we’d beneficial be getting back, I’ve got an essay to finish up. And you’d better get back to your practice session before your team get-go wondering where their headwaiter is. ”

The flight had worked & ndash ; I was incredibly cool off as Sothis walked me back to Gryffindor tower, even managing to moderate myself when he smiled at me. I was getting much better at this self-control thing, I decided. Quivering Wreck 47 ( or something ) ; Laura 1 & ndash ; this had to count as a victory of sorts. However, once we got back to the common room I was very please to be able to make my excuse and head directly for the dorm, claiming the need for a shower so that I didn’t need to spend any more clip in his society. And even though it was still ahead of time, I stayed in the student residence for the rest of the even, lying on my bed to finish my Herbology essay rather than heading back downstairs and potentially facing him again.

****

Of grade, even if I had wanted to avoid Sirius & ndash ; actually wanted to, rather than making shadowy racket in Mary’s guidance that suggested it might be a good idea & ndash ; it would bear proved more difficult than I’d anticipated, as no matter what I did he always seemed to be somewhere nearby. “ This is getting ridiculous, ” I said to Mary at the end of the workweek in a rare second of privacy. “ If he was actively trying to torture me he couldn’t do a sound job. It’s almost like he’s making a point of hanging around or something. ”

Mary groaned sympathetically, though I was sure she was gruesome to death of my grumbling about Sirius. If I was honest with myself, I recognised that if I’d been on the receiving end, I would give been too. But I needed to babble to soul about it and, as my secure supporter, she drew the short chaff. “ Is it really tha’bad, though ? ” she asked after a suspension.

“ well, spirit at this week, ” I said, counting off the days on my fingers. “ Monday & ndash ; walked me to lunch after Potions, and then he was sitting just behind us in Charms and kept talking to us when we were practicing the charm. Tuesday & ndash ; worked on the future plant life during Herbology, and helped me out during transfiguration when I couldn’t get the spell right. Plus walked me down to Quidditch drill and back again, though that was on James’orders so maybe I shouldn’t count it. Wednesday & ndash ; was waiting after antediluvian Runes because he had to recount Remus something, so take the air with us to the library. Thursday & ndash ; asked for advice during Herbology, where he was on the next plant, again. And today, sat just behind us during defense reaction and kept interrupting our conversation, and kept offering hints when professor Perkins asked us to duel. So even if I try to avoid him, I can’t. ”

The Virgin was nodding. “ Ye’re richt, ” she admitted. “ It does seem beyond th’norm. Bu’then again, tha’does ten’t’happen when ye’re Quaker wi’someone. ”

“ I know, ” I said miserably. “ But does he let to be so bloody nice about everything ? It was so often sluttish when I thought he was arrogant. ”

“ O’course it wa & rsquo ;, ” Mary said reasonably. “ When ye though’he was arrogan’ye didna lik’him at all. So there wasna a problem. ”

“ Yeah, all right, ” I conceded. “ But what do I do about it ? ”

“ Jus’delight it, ” she suggested. “ After this year ye may ne’er see him again, so ye micht as well mak’th’mos’o’it nou. ”

I thought about that. “ You might be right, ” I said eventually. “ Okay, I’ll see what I can do. ”




writer’s notation : Yes, I know, a bit of a filler, but like all filler it had some authoritative stuff hidden away in there that needed to be covered. And I should confess that I made up most of which heather were around at what meter, and any proceeds they may sustain associated with them - we don't have much info about that kind of thing from canon so I had to forge it.

35
The first Hogsmeade visit took place on the finis weekend in October. As I had told Sirius, the little girl as a mathematical group had decided that as we were all single ( aside from Lily ), we would go together and sustain a lovely girls’day out, trying on garb in Gladrags and even going to Zonko’s and Dervish & amp ; Bange’s, which were rumoured to have stocks of things like love potions if you knew where to look or who to ask.

Hogsmeade itself was getting more than and more dismay, just like Diagon alleyway and anywhere else only wizards went. Heavy with storage of the Dementor attack less than six calendar month earlier, we stayed together in a mathematical group and had our baton within easy reach at all fourth dimension, keeping a safe distance from anyone who looked like they might possibly be Death Eaters out for a bit of arbitrary intimidation of the local. ( Not that the Death feeder had been reported as being in Hogsmeade & ndash ; if they had, then I doubted that Dumbledore would hold allowed the sojourn to go ahead & ndash ; but then again, they might have decided that was a secure day to begin, and we weren’t in the temper for taking any prospect. ) We also spent a lot of time trying to avoid the various amulet sellers and other stall-holders that had also increased since finish year, though sometimes the temptation to hex them got to be too lots, and to a greater extent than one ended up with tusks, or wheels where their substructure used to be. ( Generally, the more they hassled us to buy their products, the more likely they were to be hexed by the end of the day. )

On our way to Gladrags we were almost bowled over by a rather thin and unkempt-looking magician with ginger haircloth being physically ejected from the Hog’s Head, the other pub in the Village which had a somewhat shady reputation, with what appeared to be considerable military group and a Banishing spell to bring up. While there wasn’t much to see once we had all dusted ourselves off and the topic of the disturbance had wandered with a bandy-legged pace down the main street and out of sight, the outcome itself was more than a little challenging.

“ Wonder what that was about, ” Martha said quietly. “ Must have been pretty bad, whatever it was. ” We and most of Hogwarts had been under the imprint that there was nothing under the sun that would force person to be kicked out of the Hog’s headspring.

“ Maybe he was casting Unforgivables, ” charlotte suggested, casting a uneasy glance in the direction the man had last been seen.

“ Didna look lik’much o’a Death eater, though, ” Madonna pointed out. “ An’I canna think someone bein’kicked oot fer cursin’Death eater, either. ”

“ Good period, ” I agreed. “ If nothing else he didn’t really front like he’d be capable of casting anything as strong as an Unforgivable. ”

Coming up with ideas and theories as to what the ginger-haired wizard could possibly have done to merit such a punishment kept us occupied for a in force half hour, extending even when we ducked past a few more stall-holders to get into Gladrags to see what their latest range of beautifying robes could do for someone like me. boilersuit, however, even Gladrags was rather unsatisfying in general and it was in a more melancholy mood than we had hoped that we converged on the tercet Broomsticks at about one-fourth to one for lunch.

The difference of opinion between the interior of the pub and the pallid atmosphere outside couldn’t have been more palpable. The place was bustling with lite, euphony and chatter and we soon realised that we would make trouble finding a table, a problem that none of us had ever faced before. Clearly, the eternal sleep of the pub’s clientele felt the Sami about the humour open air as we did and had decided to stay inside for the long draw.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your purview of it, we were spotted by Remus and called over to portion the mesa he was at with Dog Star and Peter. Four supererogatory electric chair were found so quickly I wondered if they had been Summoned and we all squeezed up, seven around a table better suited for four.

“ Well, ” said Martha, looking around after we’d all sat down, “ this is cosy. ”

“ You’re not wrongfulness, ” agreed Sirius, who as the tallest and broadest was most probably the most cramped by the agreement. “ Anyone eff how to do an indiscernible Extension Charm ? ”

grin at the musical theme, we all shook our principal & ndash ; that one had yet to come up in our Charms class.

“ Not to worry, ” he said. “ Though I think I’ll catch some drinks. Butterbeers all unit of ammunition, or would you choose something stiff ? ”

We placed our ordination and he took off towards the bar, where over my shoulder I watched him coquet unashamedly with ma'am Rosmerta, the curvy landlady, as he ordered the drink. When they were poured, however, he apparently realised the flaw in the plan.

“ Oi, who wants to serve me behave them ? ” he called over his shoulder, his voice just discernable over the din.

The Virgin looked at me and winked almost imperceptibly. “ Laura, ye’re th’close, ” she said, though it wasn’t strictly true & ndash ; dick next to me was probably closer. I took the hint, though.

“ okey, I’ll go, ” I said with counterfeit reluctance, not sure if disbursement time in near proximity to him was necessarily a good thing. It was, however, a bit of self-indulgence and he couldn’t possibly detect any ulterior motives as I was, as Mary had pointed out, one of the snug.

He looked almost please when I got up and pushed my way through the crowd to the bar. “ Here you go, Laura, can you use up those ? ” he asked, indicating three frothing mugs of butterbeer on the bar. Next to them were four glass of Firewhisky on the careen. “ I can deal with these so we should be right. ”

Obviously a Levitation Charm would on the airfoil have been an easier option, but if you’ve ever tried to control something via a Levitation Charm when you’re in the midsection of a crowd you’d know it’s generally not a good estimate. Especially when it’s something that can spill without too much assistance. Fortunately Dog Star was improbable enough to part the waters for me, so to speak, and we made it back to the board with all drinks intact. When we tried to pay him for the crapulence, though, he insisted on footing the bill, saying almost ridiculously that if he couldn’t buy potable for some ally then he had no line having champion in the first place, and I had the notion this was theatrical role of the strict code of honour the boys seemed to share.

We all ended up staying in the ternion broomstick for a good couple of time of day afterwards, both enjoying the companionship and atmosphere and not really wanting to face up the stall-holders outside, even if they did have antlers. Eventually, as different people got up to do different things ( gild lunch, visit the toilets, get another round of deglutition ), and masses shifted to speak to someone else, we all ended up in completely different prat to those we had started in, and I was thrilled to find myself adjacent to Sirius again for very much of the good afternoon. Which, I hasten to add, was through no design of my own, just the fortune of the hooking, but it certainly beat my pilot touch next to putz. Charlotte was probably just as pleased with the arrangements, which had put her at Remus’side for a similar duration of metre.

Halfway through the good afternoon we lost Martha, who disappeared on her way to the bar & ndash ; and by this I mean a completely unobjectionable disappearance rather than anything even vaguely sinister. The only thing was that she had been going to get our drinks order so we were starting to get a picayune miffed at her non-return.

“ I did see Davey Gudgeon stop her on the way, ” Charlotte said as we looked through the crowds for her. “ Maybe she’s gone over to where the Hufflepuffs are. ”

Peter suddenly sniggered, and Remus and Canicula turned to him sharply. “ Something you’re not telling us, Wormtail ? ”

“ Not really, ” cock explained. “ But I’ve found Martha now and I don’t think she’s with the Hufflepuffs. Or, not with more than one of the Hufflepuffs, ” he went on, his eyes glinting.

We followed his gaze to a situation by the far paries, slightly obscured by a orotund pot plant life, where Martha and Davey were cloistered up together having one heck of a snog. Ah well, just luck to them, I thought. Davey was a squeamish enough boy, even if his babe ( who’d been in Bea’s year ) had to have been one of the ditziest girls I had ever come across. But then again, I couldn’t exactly judge someone on what their baby was like, could I ?

“ Well, that would explain it, ” Remus said with a smile. “ Though it looks like we’re going to have to get our own drinks. What did you desire again ? ”

As we all gave our orders again and fished around for some gold to pay for it, I noticed that Peter was still watching Martha and Davey by the back wall, as though that was the most interesting thing he’d ever seen. Maybe he was something of a voyeur, I thought, reasoning that it might be his only option considering nearly of the girlfriend in our year wouldn’t have touched him with a ten foot Pole. Remus, coming back to the tabular array with the swallow, caught my eye and just grinned, his eye flicking towards Simon Peter. Right, I thought, that pretty much confirmed it & ndash ; this was his usual behaviour.

Martha’s exit meant there was a bit more room at our table which was both a swearing and a blessing, as while it gave us some breathing quad it meant that I had no excuse to rub my munition and legs up against Sirius any Thomas More. It had been nice, being able to pretend for a bit that we actually were a yoke and he wouldn’t be horrified if he knew that I was doing it deliberately, so I did palpate a little disappointed when it had to end.

To my horror this coincided with me starting to sense More self-aware from his law of proximity, though why this hadn’t happened before was slightly beyond me. Maybe the claustrophobic conditions had made me resistant or something. Anyway, before long the requisite tension in my shoulders began and I started clamming up, only speaking when spoken to and then using monosyllabic answer. Why did I let myself get so intimidated by him ? He was only human, shape and rip and two sleeve and two legs like the eternal sleep of us, and he was supposed to be my supporter, so there was no logical reason why I should birth been reacting that way. However, he was also as close to my dream man as I was ever going to meet, and seeing him every day, usually for hours on end, definitely didn’t assist me stop thinking about him.

I’m afraid I wasn’t the practiced caller for the relief of the good afternoon, only coming out of my stupor when the six of us started heading back towards the rook at about half three, and that was due to a sharp nudge in the costa from Mary. “ Ye okay ? ” she whispered to me as we left the Hogsmeade main street. “ Ye’ve nae bin yerself. ”

“ I know, ” I said miserably, still in a whisper as the cause of my unrest wasn’t far away, walking just ahead with Remus and pecker. “ All of a sudden I got all intimidated and I couldn’t shake it off. ” This had to be a try for Quivering Wreck at the very least, and probably a conversion as well. How about, Quivering crash 72 ; Laura 1. That was probably fairly close to the mug. I really had to puzzle out on this.

“ Ye’re gettin’worse, ” she said in a spirit that was both admonition and harmonic. “ Do ye want me t’line up a snog fer ye t’try t’ge’him oot o’yer system ? ”

I thought about that, but the very idea of kissing mortal who wasn’t Sirius just left me cold. pigeon hawk’s beard, I did have it badly. number on, Laura, snap out of it, I thought, you’re not doing yourself any favours here. I looked at Madonna. “ We could try, ” I said doubtfully, “ but I’m not convinced it would work. ”

She gave me a comforting hug as we made our way through the school Bill Gates. “ I’ll say one thinly & rsquo ;, Laura, ” she said cheerfully, “ yer pa’s rule aboot nae seein’anyone this year is plain daft. No family relationship coul’ge’ye more distracted or preoccupied than nae bein’wi’him is. ”

I gripped her arm fiercely. “ For goodness rice beer keep your part down, ” I hissed, having noticed Remus in front of us pause ever so slightly and ferment his psyche at her remark. “ Or at least Muffliato people first. ” hoot. Hopefully he wouldn’t work out what she was on about, though I wasn’t convinced he wouldn’t : Remus could be pretty sharp. And hopefully no one else & ndash ; specifically, Sirius & ndash ; heard it either.

Blessed Virgin just looked at me. “ An’ye’re miserable an’all, too, ” she went on as if I’d never interrupted her. “ I hate seein’ye lik’this. ”

I flashed her a quick smile. “ I’ll be OK. I promise. ”

She frowned slightly. " Sometimes, Laura, I'm nae so sure. "

****

The next week was a frenzy of natural process, including the yearbook Hallowe’en fiesta and the announcement of the two-year Yule glob, which was to strike station on the Saturday a workweek before Noel. I wasn’t trusted if I was looking forward to the ball or not this year & ndash ; the consequence of the endure one kept flashing through my head, and I certainly didn’t savor the idea of having to watch Sirius getting cosy with individual else all night. Having said that, however, it was bound to be a good night if I could just get over my hang-ups, and was an excuse to let our hair down a bit before the holidays.

The chunk set off the Saami sort of exuberance in our dorm as it had done two years previously, with hours of discourse about whether magic alteration of dress robes were necessary, how to accessorise, and, in the pillow slip of Charlotte, Mary and me, who to go with. Naturally, Lily would be attending with James II, who was going around looking like Yuletide had come early in his anticipation, and Martha would be going with Davey, who she had continued seeing since the Hogsmeade sojourn.

There were some abrasive discussion said in Lily and James’direction, however, due to the timing of the annunciation & ndash ; there were respective educatee who were dirty with them for not saying anything before the Hogsmeade weekend so they could sustain done some shopping.

“ They’ll live, ” Lily shrugged after a fifth-year address her in the Great Hall after dejeuner. “ It’s not like they didn’t know it was coming. ”

James I put a protective arm around her. “ And if they hassle you any more they’ll have me to deal with, ” he added. Lily, while seeming a little abashed, looked up at him affectionately.

“ Anyway, ” she went on, “ if we get ourselves organised we might be able to swing another Hogsmeade visit before Christmas. ”

Martha giggled. “ Does that mean, if you can hold open your hands off each former for long enough to actually do something ? ”

Lily blushed but James just shrugged it off. “ Ah, Martha, you’re just jealous. Or did you need some new dress robes, too ? ”

Martha just grinned and shook her head. Like the balance of us, she had taken some sentence over the summer to find some skillful wearing apparel robe for the formal, and was therefore just making the about of the opportunity to stir them up a bit.

In fact even I & ndash ; somebody with very limited interest group in clothes, even with the influence of mass like Lily, Martha and charlotte & ndash ; had brought some decent frock robes from base in preparation for the ball. I took some pride in my success in overruling Dad’s idea that I just wear my bridesmaid’s dress from Gwendolyn’s marriage or some of Bea’s old robes : this was my net year and I was determined to bet my best.

However, the palaver over the Yuletide Ball was gradually overtaken by the ever increasing flock of homework we were being given. Four or five three-foot essays a workweek were becoming bromide, as well as early affair like extra rune rendering and practicing different spell and August 6 spells. It was soon the norm for the seventh-years to be up till past midnight trying to get everything finished, and even James River and Sirius had been spotted more than once going over their notes when writing their naming, something never before seen in over six yr of shoal. For those of us not gifted with superb judgement it became a never-ending donkeywork, and we looked forward to the weekends when not only did we have a bit of spare time, but we could actually spend some of it outside before winter decided to set in in earnest.

There were also the occasional pranks and other caper initiated by the boys that served as elbow room to take our creative thinker off study, as was exemplified one Friday. Having been in family at opposite ends of the castle in the period just before lunch, the girls ( minus Lily, of form, who spent most of her prison term with James these daylight ) and I congregated in the Entrance Asaph Hall before all going into the Great Hall as a radical, only to see Charon Avery shuffling past with difficulty, having clearly been hit with what looked like a Sponge-Knees Curse. However, we’d not had clock time to do Thomas More than raise our eyebrow and depend quizzically at each former before we noticed Sirius leaning lazily on the wall behind the marble staircase, throwing his baton in the air and catching it with a live up to smirk on his face. shaft, not far away, was looking at him with what could almost be described as veneration, though Remus looked more annoyed than anything else.

“ What do you cogitate he did this sentence ? ” Martha asked wryly.

I shrugged. “ Turn up at the improper place at the wrong sentence ? ”

“ Prob’ly, ” Mary agreed. “ Le’s facial expression it, he’s a Death Eater wannabe so I wouldna be surprised if they jus’use him fer practice. ”

“ I don’t know, though, ” Charlotte said thoughtfully as we settled ourselves at the Gryffindor table in the Great Marguerite Radclyffe Hall. “ I know Sothis has taken over official pranking responsibility now Saint James the Apostle isn’t doing it, but does anyone else get the feeling his heart’s not really in it ? ”

I thought about that, casting a facial expression down the mesa at the boy’arrival as the table started heaving under the weight of the lunchtime fete. “ You know, Charlotte, I think you might deliver something there, ” I said. “ They’re not nearly as elaborate as they used to be, are they ? ”

“ Or as often, ” Martha agreed. “ digression from Avery just then, and Snivellus honking like a goose after spell on Monday, I don’t think I can name anything they’ve done all week. ”

“ Wa’tha’e’en them, though ? ” asked Virgin Mary, a all-inclusive smiling on her face. “ Snivellus, I mean. I though’Lily micht hae done tha’one. ”

“ Yes, good point, ” Martha said with a giggle. “ But you know what I mean. ”

“ It’s something I’ve noticed, ” Charlotte went on. “ Because those caper used to annoy the underworld out of me, especially the really big ones. Yes they were funny, but half the time all they did was disquiet me and I was having enough trouble keeping up with schoolwork as it was. But since King James I and Lily got together, it’s really dropped & ndash ; both the monetary standard and the frequency. It’s almost like Sirius’mind is on something else. ”

“ You mean something former than running amok or hexing Snivellus ? ” Martha said archly. “ What, isn’t he well ? ”

Charlotte shrugged. “ No thought. Though I will say that Remus seems to take had the Saami reaction I have, ” she went on with a grin.

Suppressing a smile & ndash ; of course Queen City would notice something like that & ndash ; I looked at Remus. She did get a point : while Peter generally seemed disappointed in the lack of hard-nosed jape, Remus was just as obviously relieved by it, quite possibly, like the residuum of us, needing to spend as practically fourth dimension on preparation and the alike as potential.

“ fountainhead, I canna say I miss it, ” Mary said with a grinning. “ Ye’re richt, Charlotte, it’s much better t’be able t’concentrate on schoolwork an’all. ”

“ Hear hear, ” I said with feel. After all, Sirius distracted me enough just by being there & ndash ; the last thing I needed was to give my attention diverted even more by any buffoonery or other mischief he might have been getting up to. At to the lowest degree, that was if I wanted to ingest any chance whatsoever of passing my newt.

****

public speaking of misdirection and Sothis ( because, let’s face it, the two always seemed to be connected for me these days ), another one came in the second week of November in the sort of his eighteenth natal day, which as always was marked by a political party in the Gryffindor common room. For the first metre Mary and I were personally invited, as opposed to invited by default by being in Gryffindor, and I wasn’t sure if it was a execration or a blessing. It was nice to be in the inner roofy, so to speak, but the chances of me becoming a spooky wreck on the dark were increasing by the 60 minutes.

On the Night in question Saint James the Apostle offered to charter up the bartending duties and let Sirius be host, as it was his birthday, but it seemed he preferred being responsible for the drinks to any other role. And, as he pointed out, it did warranty he would be able to blab to everyone. As the nighttime progressed I suspected it also meant he could get as drunk as he wanted, as the Firewhisky certainly seemed to be flowing faster than common.

By midnight he was very definitely under the influence and had taken to spouting bizarre theories and saying ridiculous thing, almost rivalling Hambledon Quince in their absurdity. Lily, away from James for maybe half an hour, had remarked to us that she thought it was about getting some Dutch courage, but there didn’t seem to be anything he needed courageousness for aside from singing along to the a la mode Hobgoblins record book at the top of his lungs, looking even more than common like their singer, Stubby Boardman, in the cognitive operation. ( And yes, even that drunken singing was in melodic phrase. Sometimes he just made me tired of. ) By one o’clock he had progressed to doing matter like asking for a birthday kiss, though by that clip I wasn’t convinced he could pull even that off.

“ Ah, Laura, where’s my kiss ? ” he slurred, lunging at me as I went to get myself another butterbeer. “ Just the one, I promise I won’t try anything. ”

“ I don’t think that’s a undecomposed mind, ” I said with a push smile as I determinedly found my way back to the fireside. While I would sustain died for a proper kiss from him, this definitely wasn’t the time to cosset my little phantasy.

Mary grinned at me as I sat down. “ Wha & rsquo ;, ye’re nae going t’tak’th’opportunity ? ” she whispered in my ear. “ Ye may nae ge’a secure chance. ”

I grimaced. “ If he doesn’t bewilder up on me in the process, ” I said, trying to ignore the loud display of disappointment Canicula was engaging in by the bar. “ I don’t mean he’s exactly in a fit state to be asking for anything like that. await at him, he can barely even stand up ! ”

Remus had apparently overheard the last part of what I’d said. “ Come on, Laura, give him a chance, ” he said evenly. “ It is his birthday, after all. ”

I shot him a flavour. “ Remus, you’re supposed to be one of his best friends, you should be the one doing legal injury restraint, ” I said sharply. “ Okay, King James is out of business thanks to Lily, but you can still step in. Stop him doing that sort of crap. ”

“ What sort of crap ? ” He looked genuinely confused.

“ material that he’s going to regret doing in the morn once he’s sobered up, ” I explained. “ If he’s propositioning the likes of me he definitely needs your help. ”

Remus looked at me seriously. “ With all due respect, I’ve known him for recollective than you have and I think that I have a in effect idea of what he’s going to regret in the morning than you do, ” he said, and his voice was measured but his eye were flashing. “ Believe me, if I think he’s going too far then I definitely will step in. ”

I shrugged. “ Fine. It’s your funeral. Or, if he keeps drinking like that, it’s his. ” Despite my flippant manner I was in fact a petty worried about Sirius, but the boy had apparently seen this sort of demeanour a tidy few times before and weren’t fussed about it in the least.

“ Relax, ” he said, appearing to have calmed down a slight. At least, his middle weren’t flashing any more, and he had probably guessed that I was in fact rather concerned about his friend. “ Padfoot can await after himself. And if you’re still not convinced, Prongs has gone over there now to shore up him up a bit. Even if we can’t lay our hand on any Sobering resolution, he’ll have a concern in the sunrise but otherwise he’ll be fine. ” He smiled suddenly. “ And with no regrets, at least not the sort you’re thinking of. ” And he got up and went over to the bar where Dog Star was now drinking straight from a bottle of Firewhisky, his arm around William James’shoulder joint as they relived some prank or other.

****

Maybe I should have taken my chance at his birthday company. At least then I would have had some experience of being held by him and kissed by him, even if it would have just been a boozy peck. It would have been better than what I currently had, which was & ndash ; nothing.

These thoughts consumed me in the come after days. Was it stupe to say no, even in a situation like that ? Should I sustain made the most of what would most probably have been the simply opportunity I would ever get ? Would a memory of what would in all likelihood in his opinion have been inferior ( I refer here to his country at the clock time, rather than any commentary on my own abilities or lack thereof ) have been meliorate than what my imagination could bring on ?

I spent one-half my meter kicking myself for saying no, and the early half congratulating myself on escaping something which could well make been disappoint, especially considering his precondition on the nighttime and how much I had built it up in my school principal as to what it might be like. I was doubly proud of with myself when I thought about how he might make reacted to me the surveil day once he’d sobered up a bit : I couldn’t stomach the view of him avoiding me because he was embarrassed about what he’d done. I was just thinking about the implication of this & ndash ; and shuddering & ndash ; as I wandered towards the library after ancient Runes that Wed, lost in my own thoughts and paying short attention to what was going on around me.

Unfortunately, my blissful musing state wasn’t to last. As I rounded a quoin on the back floor I almost walked decently into the theme of these musings, who seemed to be entwined with a girl I didn’t know.

I stopped numb. While they weren’t in the middle of a snog, it did calculate like they had recently finished one, and I could feel the colour draining from my font. I’d thought I was getting better with this whole Dog Star thing, I could almost manipulate myself when I was around him ( usually ), I’d even found myself another stop that hebdomad against Quivering shipwreck, and then something like this had to happen. I shouldn’t have been surprised, really, he’d not had a girlfriend since he and Clio had broken up back in February and it was now November, but it still tore through me. I had been hoping against hope that I might have had a chance with him. Unfortunately, though, the reality was that Hogwarts was wide-cut of girls far prettier than I was, and this young woman must have caught his eye in one way or another. In any case, it was a reality that I really wasn’t sure I would be able to front.

He had another girl. And it wasn’t me.




writer’s musical note : Yep, a cliffy ! Sorry about that, and please don’t cast the nearest sonorous objective at me. Or at Sirius, for that matter ( though he’d probably just cast a Reductor Curse on it anyway ). All will be explained, I promise. : )
I will also apologise if I confused anyone with the rugby computer address in the Hogsmeade scene, but with Laura’s upbringing, from her mother at least, I thought it was pertinent. For those of you unfamiliar with the sport, a try is what rugger calls the foundation of the clod over the goal argument whilst retaining control. It’s worth five tip, but if you convert the accompanying goal kick then you get seven points all told. fountainhead worth it, especially considering a penalty or field goal is only worth three. ( I understand that the grading is alike to a touchdown in American football game, and the conversion the point after touchdown. ) nada ignites the crowd together quite like a well-run try …



36
Frozen to the post, I looked at the daughter wrapped around Sirius. She was probably a sixth-year, I thought, looking at her, and she had Hufflepuff robes on. ( And at to the lowest degree they were still on, a persona of me pointed out with Thomas More than a little succor. I hadn’t interrupted anything too severe. )

Canicula, for his region, seemed to be trying to distance himself from whoever she was and looked almost anxious as his eyes went from her to me.

“ It’s not what it looked like, ” he said quickly, wriggling around uncomfortably as the Hufflepuff daughter adjusted her hold on him.

“ Of course it was, ” she cooed, looking up at him adoringly. “ Why don’t you want to allow that we’re together now ? ”

He wrenched himself away from her. “ Because we’re not ! ” he snapped, his face rather red as he looked back at me. “ Honestly, Laura, there’s nothing going on here. ”

I just stood there, unable to say anything, though that didn’t really storm me all that much. I had just walked into my worst incubus and I was expected to be able to talk ? That didn’t happen. Not in my world, anyway. I was discovering just how a good deal of my worked up upbeat was tied up in the melodic theme of him being available, and by the look of things it was way too lots.

( Speaking of worst nightmares, voice of me wondered idly if this was what my Boggart would be now. Canicula with another girl. I had a very nasty suspicion that it would. )

The Hufflepuff girl was still cooing at him and trying to run her fingers through his hair while he pulled away from her. I wasn’t sure why he was so worked up & ndash ; she was quite pretty and they hadn’t been doing anything that would cause embarrassment if witnessed & ndash ; but then again my brain had rooted and I wasn’t thinking clearly at all. Finally it switched into appurtenance and my defensive side took over.

“ What does it weigh who you’re snogging, Canicula ? ” I asked, hoping he didn’t notice the weeping that were starting to appear in the corner of my eyes. “ Do what you like. I really don’t care. ”

It killed me to lie like that but what else could I do ? Collapse into rent on the storey because he felt up another missy ? That would be ridiculous, not to name embarrassing. Instead I turned on my heel and walked back the way I’d come, heading towards the common room. I could see him saying something in the background and was vaguely cognizant of the racket caused by what sounded like a falling causa of armour behind me, but there was no way known I would hold been capable to stay to take heed him out : that collapsing in the middle of the floor thing hadn’t happened yet, but if I hung around it could well have. And I needed to get into my dormitory & ndash ; the library could very definitely wait & ndash ; and thrust affair at the wall before anyone else found out.

Quivering wreck had just caught the Snitch.

****

A flood of binge and various broken lampshades later ( give thanks good for Reparo, let me tell you ), I had just about calmed down enough to put on an stolid face for the other girls. I wasn’t expecting any of them in the student residence anytime soon & ndash ; the last lesson of the day was not yet over & ndash ; but someone like Sirius Black getting a new girlfriend was the sort of chin-wagging that Hogwarts thrived on, and I would ask to be strong if I was going to get through a discussion about that without crying. Yes, I was devastated, but I couldn’t let anyone have intercourse that without them realising just what Canicula meant to me, and I couldn’t handle that information getting out. I’d never hear the end of it.

It didn’t take long for me to know that I couldn’t face going down to dinner that Night. So, I feigned malady. I pulled the curtain around my bed and lay face down, hoping the pillow would muffle any SOB. When the girls came in to drop their bags off I tried to cast a non-verbal Cheering Charm on myself so that when they spoke to me I didn’t sound like I was crying, more like I was just ill.

“ What’s wrong ? ” asked Lily, all worry and compassion as she peered through the curtains at me. Sometimes I wished she wasn’t so nice, it would have been that much easier to retain things from her.

“ Just tactile sensation flat, ” I said. It wasn’t even a lie. “ I think I’ve been trying to do too much, I just need a dark of heartsease and tranquil and I can try to get some more sleep. ” OK, that one wasn’t entirely true, but I wasn’t about to tell Lily what had me so down.

“ Are ye okay ? ” Mary asked, parting the curtains and sitting on the bed, her hand on my back.

“ Yeah, I’ll be mulct, ” I said. “ I just involve a rest. ”

“ Richt. ” She looked back through the curtains at the other daughter. “ Can we hae a arcminute please ? ” Clearly, someone nodded or something, and Mary waited till the door clicked shut before speaking again. “ Nou, hae ye hear’aboot Dog Star an’tha’girl ? Glenys Ngaio Marsh ? ”

I turned my caput and looked at her, rolling my oculus. “ Yes, I know about that. ”

“ Richt, ” she said again. Another break. “ An’ye’re sure ye’re okay here by yerself ? ”

“ I’ll be delicately, ” I said, realising that we were both repeating ourselves and wondering why it all felt so forced.

“ well, if ye need me, jus’Summon my tomentum tie, ” she said. “ I’ll be sure t’notice if tha’goes flyin’off. ”

“ mulct, ” I said, somehow finding the strength to smile. “ I’ll do that. ”

“ okay, ” she said doubtfully. “ Jus’ge’yer stay, then. ”

As she left, I lay there wondering why I had pushed her away. Maybe it was because I felt like such an idiot in the first office for getting myself into this position. In any case, just then what I wanted was solitude. ( O.K., not quite correctly & ndash ; what I really wanted was for Sirius to descend bursting in and explicate that it was all a misunderstanding and he was in fact madly in love with me. fuss was, that was never going to happen so I had to settle for what was realistic, and purdah seemed like my honorable bet there. ) I had to get my cerebration and emotions in order before I had any Hope of facing the world outside, so a few hr alone looked like a sound way of doing that.

The next morning, after a rather sleepless night, I considered not going down to breakfast either. Or even down to the plebeian elbow room. The job with this, however, was that Lily was threatening to take me to the hospital fender if I wasn’t feeling better, just to nominate sure all was well and maybe get me some Pepper-Up Potion. Explaining a check heart to Madam Pomfrey wasn’t exactly high on the list of things I wanted to do that day, so in the end I decided that breakfast couldn’t really be all that bad, could it ? And if I sat as far away from Sirius as potential then maybe I could ignore this unharmed new girl thing. What was her name again ? Gladys something-or-other ? Not that it really mattered, but I supposed I needed to get used to it.

So, finding some resolve, I made my way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. I was a bit later than the other lady friend, having needed a long tub to get myself in the right frame of mind ( in secret ) ; they had reluctantly gone down ahead of me after making me promise to join them once I was ready. And I meant to, I really did. I had every design of walking into the Great manor hall with self-regard, not letting on how overturn I was by what had happened the previous day.

Unfortunately, Alecto Carrow had other idea. She appeared in the entrance Hall at about the same time as I reached the top of the marble staircase, and she was clearly itching for a fighting. “ Oh, look, it’s the Muggle-lover, ” she hissed, her baton hand going into her gown.

“ Oh, looking at, it’s the midget, ” I shot back, not bothering to reach for my own wand. She wasn’t the topper at spellcasting & ndash ; in fact, I was rather surprised that she’d made it as far as 7th yr & ndash ; so I wasn’t exactly worried.

“ Better to be short than a Mudblood, ” she retorted.

“ I wouldn’t know, ” I said, “ not being either. But you think that if it makes you happy. ”

Antagonising an irate Death eater wannabee, particularly before breakfast, probably wasn’t a very unspoilt estimation, as I discovered a here and now later when she hit me with a remarkably well-placed Trip Jinx. Not even halfway down the marble staircase, I promptly lost my footing and hurtled head-first to the stone flooring below.

Alecto was gloating as I landed unpleasantly stopping point to her feet. “ Oh, Cauldwell, are you hurt ? ” she asked mockingly, kicking me a few times for good mensuration. “ All you deserve … Muggle. ”

****

Remus found me first, sitting on the floor breast feeding my injuries. Both legs were throbbing and my left over ankle joint had swollen rather significantly, so quite honestly the idea of standing up without help wasn’t one I was relishing.

“ What happened to you ? ” he asked.

“ Trip jinx from Alecto Carrow, ” I said a petty ruefully. “ I fell down the stairs. ”

He looked storm. “ Her spell actually hit you ? ”

I smiled despite myself. “ Yeah, I was surprised too. Maybe she’s been working on that. ”

“ Or maybe she was aiming at something ten feet to your right, ” he said wryly. “ Anyway, it looks foul, ” he went on sympathetically, pulling his wand out. “ Tergeo. There, that’s got rid of the blood on your aspect. Now, do you need a hand getting up ? ”

I looked up at him gratefully. “ That’d be fantastic, thanks. ” And I hoisted an arm around his shoulder to try to get some leverage to tolerate.

“ No vexation, ” he said. “ We’ll get you to Madam Pomfrey, she can fix just about anything. ”

I got to a standing position but winced when his hand grabbed my position. “ Do you mind ? ” I asked, moving it a little downcast to my shank. “ Thanks. I think I might have cracked a rib or two. ”

“ How far did you diminish ? ” he asked as we tried to get back up the like stair I had just tumbled down.

“ more than half way, ” I said. “ Ooh, watch the neck too, that’s a bit sore. ”

In fact, the only way I could take the air, with his help, was to put both blazon around his neck ( from side on, of course ) and put most of my weightiness on his shoulders. I did experience a bit sorry for him because it couldn’t have been easy, trying to drag me upstairs like that, but with my hurt ribs and articulatio talocruralis & ndash ; which was now so swell it looked rather like a Quaffle & ndash ; there wasn’t much alternative.

As we reached the top of the stairs I caught a glimpse of King James I, Sirius and Peter in the entry antechamber, probably on their way to Transfiguration. I was a niggling surprised that Sirius was with the boys rather than that hobo ( sorry, his new lady friend & ndash ; I had to remember to be gracious about her ) but then again he tended to piece and choose when he wanted to behave all boyfriend-y so this was clearly not one of those bit. In any case I didn’t want to see him & ndash ; I could almost finger the rip welling up just from that glimpse & ndash ; and was thankful to be able to condense on getting to the hospital wing. I’d never thought I could ever be indebted to Alecto Carrow for anything, but she had very successfully given me something else to recall about. I might even have to give thanks her.

Remus for some reason didn’t want to verbalize to them either & ndash ; in fact, he looked almost uncomfortable as he glanced over the handrail at them & ndash ; but again, for this I was grateful. Maybe Remus understood my problem ( always a possibility, especially after the Hogsmeade visit the previous month ) and realised I needed to keep on away from Sirius. In any case, it was a welcome surprise.

We were soon in the hospital backstage and Madam Pomfrey, very good at her job, managed to repair all the small abrasions, fix the costa, put my neck opening back in and get the swelling down in my ankle in lupus erythematosus than a pair of minutes. However, she was worried about concussion so insisted on keeping me in for a few time of day for observation.

“ But I’ve got double Transfiguration this morning, I really postulate to go, ” I said helplessly as she fussed around my bed. “ At to the lowest degree to hand my preparation in. ”

“ Nonsense, ” she snapped, peering into my center and taking my temperature. “ I need to make sure you’re completely cured, I’m for certain prof McGonagall will understand. ”

I groaned. I couldn’t even open it to Remus to drive in for me & ndash ; as soon as he’d seen me safely to lady Pomfrey’s business office he’d taken off, saying there was something he needed to take maintenance of before socio-economic class. “ Is there any chance I might make it to appealingness after break ? ” I asked hopefully. This was seventh year, after all, and I didn’t want to miss any Sir Thomas More classes than I could help.

“ We’ll see, ” she said.

Not long afterwards Madonna came in to see how I was. I was thankful for the society, not least because Mary was the only of my friend who didn’t do August 6 and so there was no way our conversation might be overheard by anyone I wanted to keep my enigma from.

“ So ye are i’here, ” she said, dumping her bag on the flooring by my bed. “ I hear’Remus talkin’an’it soonded lik’ye were pretty badly hur’. ”

“ fell down the marble stairs, ” I said a little ruefully. “ Tripped, actually & ndash ; Alecto Carrow somehow managed to get a Trip curse to work. I’d be impressed if I wasn’t so sore. ”

“ So why di’she trip ye ? ” asked Madonna, sitting down on the bed next to my knee joint.

“ The usual, ” I said, attempting to shrug but giving up when the bruising around my ribs started to object & ndash ; lady Pomfrey had warned me that it would take a mates of hour for the healing paste she’d used on them to work. “ I’m a Muggle-lover, apparently. But then I called her a midget and she didn’t take it very well. ”

She started laughing. “ Ye actually said tha’t’her expression ? Good on ye. Bu’I can see why she micht nae lik’it much. ”

“ Well, I wasn’t in the topper mood, ” I conceded. “ I was a bit worked up about this totally Sirius affair. The simply reason I came down for breakfast in the first topographic point was to stop Lily marching me in here for a Pepper-Up Potion. ”

The Virgin looked surprise. “ Ye were worked up ? Why ? ”

I gave her a expression. “ Why do you think ? ”

“ Bu’it’s nae lik’he had any say i’it, ” she said, frowning. “ Why woul’it bother ye ? ”

“ hang on, ” I said, confused, “ are we talking about the same affair here ? Sirius and that Glinda whatever-her-name-is ? ”

“ Aye, Glenys Marsh, ” said The Virgin, looking just as confused. “ Wha’dae ye think happened ? ”

“ I walked in on them having a snog, ” I said. “ Or, to be precise, just after a snog. I was assuming they were an item now. ”

She looked horrified. “ Tha’wa’ye ? ”

“ What do you mean, that was me ? ” I asked.

To my surprise, Madonna suddenly burst into laugh. “ Oh, Laura, ye really hae go’this backwards, ” she said eventually. “ Ye’re on completely th’ill-timed track. ”

“ What do you mean ? ” I asked suspiciously.

“ Glenys Marsh is i’th’fan club, ” she explained, smiling broadly. “ Seems lik’she cornered him an’tried t’jump on him an’snog him. He didna e’en ken who she wa & rsquo ;, apparen’ly she’s a new appendage or summit who wa’tryin’t’impress Elvira, so ye can reckon his response, this lassie he’s ne’er seen afore throwin’herself at him while he’s tryin’t’escape valve. An & rsquo ;, Book wa’tha’some young girl ha’walked i’on them a’th’wors’possible clip, bu’nae one knew if tha’wa’unfeigned because we couldna fin’who it wa & rsquo ;, an’he wouldna say. Bu’if tha’wa’ye, Laura … ”

I sat dead still, my brain very slowly taking this information in. This was a fan cabaret stunt ? He had been caught off guard ?

He was still single ?

I suddenly realised I was staring at Mary, open-mouthed, in amazement, and hurried to shut my mouthpiece before I did anything as undignified as dribbling. “ So this was all a misunderstanding ? Some lady of pleasure just lunged at him and he was trying to get rid of her ? But then … why did she say they were a duet now ? ”

“ Jus’tryin’t’see if ye’d believe it, prob’ly, ” she suggested.

I groaned. “ And I did. ”

She grinned. “ Well, look on th’bricht side, ye dinna consider it nou. He’s nae seein’anyone. So ye’ve still go’a luck. Well, as much o’a chance as e’er. ”

Suddenly the all affair seemed to be much amusing than it had previously, and I started laughing. “ Merlin, of all the times I had to run into them, ” I said, “ it would be then. Poor him. No wonder he looked so uncomfortable & ndash ; I thought it was just because they’d been sprung. ”

“ So ye’ve been torturin’yerself aboot it all nicht, ” Mary said sympathetically. “ Nae wonder ye didna mak’it t’supper. ”

“ fountainhead, that was a sleepless Night wasted, ” I admitted. “ And now I’ve gone and missed metamorphosis. I didn’t even pass on Remus my preparation to paw in & ndash ; you’d think I’d be best organised. ”

She frowned suddenly. “ He micht nae hae handed it in anyway, ” she said thoughtfully. “ He seemed a bi’worked up. ”

“ Remus ? ” I looked at her, surprised. “ Why ? He was fine when he left here. ”

Although, thinking about it, he wasn’t & ndash ; he had appeared a little disturb as he left the infirmary wing. Why, I had no approximation. ferment and Remus weren’t two affair I normally associated with one another.

“ I hear’him an’Sirius an’James havin’a richt row after breakfas & rsquo ;, ” she said. “ Summit aboot fudgin’a code. James an’Canicula were on him aboot breakin’pattern o’some sor’. It wa’all verra strange. ”

“ That is Weird, ” I conceded. “ What were they saying ? ”

Madonna hesitated. “ I think Sirius said summit lik’it didna facial expression lik’naethin & rsquo ;, and Henry James said ye’d secure hae a fucking just reasonableness t’fudge th’codification lik’tha & rsquo ;, an’Remus said tha’it wa’naethin’an’they jus’needed t’hear him oot. They all soonded really wild, they were yellin’so half th’shoal coul’prob’ly hear them. So St. James said go on, explicate yer way oot of it, an’Remus said tha’he’d nae impoverished any rules, an’he helped write them so he wouldna fracture them. An’Sothis said tha’wasna commodity enough an’kick in him one rationality nae t’whammy Remus richt nou, an’Remus said tha’ye were i’th’infirmary backstage after bein’hur’pretty bad from a jinx. ”

I frowned. “ What ? That’s a bit of a leap. What would me being jinxed have to do with rules that Remus helped indite ? ”

She shrugged. “ I wondered tha’too. Anyway, tha’wa’hoo I foond oot ye were i’here so I came up richt away an’didna hear any more. An’I woul’think th’lads wen’straight t’Transfiguration Day anyway, it wa’aboot tha’time. ”

We were interrupted by lady Pomfrey, who seemed to have suddenly realised that Mary had been with me for at to the lowest degree half an 60 minutes, which was about twenty-five minutes longer than she usually allowed visitors for. “ Right, that’s more than long enough, ” she said sharply. “ This girl needs relaxation. Out. OUT ! ”

****

I was finally allowed out of the infirmary wing at lunch time, having caught up on some eternal rest and convinced ma'am Pomfrey that I had no lingering core from my fall that break of day. I rejoined my schoolmate in the Great Hall and wolfed some food down hungrily ( I’d not had breakfast, after all ), noticing in the process that the boy seemed to have made up after their contestation ; in fact, there was so piddling grounds that there had been an argument at all that I started wondering if Madonna had imagined it.

As we left the mansion, I was a little surprised to rule a troubled-looking Sirius walking next to me on the way to Herbology. “ Look, about yesterday, ” he began, his voice quiet like he was hoping no one would overhear us.

“ What, the titterer matter ? ” I asked, interrupting him.

“ Yeah, that, ” he said, his face clearing. “ You know she was a giggler, then ? ”

“ Yeah, I know, ” I said, hoping he wouldn’t realise how relieved I had been at that information. “ It did look like something else, though. ”

He groaned. “ That was the worst possible moment you could feature chosen to interrupt us, ” he said. “ Any other prison term and it would have been obvious what was going on. And I didn’t want you to think … ” His voice trailed off.

I stole a glance at him, not trusting myself with anything Thomas More than that. “ Really, what does it matter what I think ? ” I asked, bracing myself for what I was about to say. “ It’s your aliveness, you can do what you like. ”

“ But & ndash ; ” He trailed off again, as though not really sure what he wanted to say.

“ Look, Sirius, ” I said, “ I can understand you not wanting anyone to think you snogged a titterer. That would open up way too big a can of worms. But aside from that, what difference does it make ? ”

“ There was nothing there, ” he said, and even without looking at him I could feel his optic on me. “ I had absolutely nothing to do with it. I just wanted you to understand that. ”

I wanted nothing more than to grab his hired hand and squeeze it, or, even better, put an arm around him, to let him sleep together that I didn’t find fault him at all. But the potential for something like that being misinterpreted ( or, to be honest, interpreted correctly, but you know what I mean ) was way too high so I just smiled at him, grateful we had reached the glasshouse.

“ mulct, ” I said, moving towards Blessed Virgin, just wanting to escape before I said too practically. “ I understand. ”

****

The year was wearing on and, to my surprisal, even with our healthy assigning I was still managing to keep my head above body of water. My spare time, however, was becoming more than and more circumscribed and I realised with a degree of disappointment that Dad hadn’t been kidding : this really was a year to buckle down and get into it. Not that I was convinced yet that keeping me from doing anything fun was a upright idea & ndash ; maybe I’d be more uncoerced to thrust myself into yet another three-foot essay from professor Sprout ( on this juncture, ‘ Explain the unlike methods of extracting venom from poisonous works and way to increase its supplying, referring to at least six unlike metal money of plant’) if I had some beguilement occasionally.

Sirius, of course of instruction, was my most common distraction. He was thankfully still ace, despite the fan society’s best efforts, and looking better than ever if that was even potential. And, as I had complained to The Virgin respective week earlier, avoiding him was much light said than done, not least because we had such similar timetables. Add to this the fact that James I still kept asking me to go to Quidditch practice as a consultant ( I felt like charging him an hourly rate sometimes ), and insisted that Sirius chaperone me to and from the sales pitch, and it was unacceptable not to drop prison term with him. It was both commodity and bad & ndash ; I really did enjoy his company, and we got along very well, but there was always that man-of-my-dreams affair that kept getting in the way.

“ You know, you do fly very well, ” he said as we wandered back to the castle after yet another Quidditch praxis I’d been talked into attending, this one in lately Nov. “ I can understand why Prongs keeps pestering you to join in. ”

I threw him a look. “ I’ve told you, I can only do it two-handed, ” I snapped, somewhat exasperated as I’d just had this very disputation with Henry James himself. “ And how does he gestate me to catch a Quaffle or keep back a Beater’s bat if I need both hands on my Scots heather ? ”

“ Even so, ” he said, “ your Scots heather control is pretty good. Just accept it as a compliment for once. ”

I looked at him, feeling chastened. He had a point, he and James River were being perfectly nice to me and I kept jumping down their pharynx. “ Sorry. Thanks. ”

As we made our way through the oak front doors and reached the top of the marble staircase, heading towards the adjacent flight that would strike us in the focus of Gryffindor tugboat, I noticed he kept looking at the cap as though trying to give them to memory.

“ What are you doing ? ” I asked.

He looked almost embarrassed. “ Peeves keep moving where the mistletoe is, ” he explained, “ and I don’t want to get caught by any of the gigglers. ”

I nodded as we skirted around a suit of armour trying to sing carols & ndash ; Christmas Day trimmings had been up for LE than a week and I was still getting used to them. “ You mean like what happened the early hebdomad ? ”

He made a face and shuddered dramatically. “ Don’t remind me. ”

I smiled. “ Sorry. ”

“ No problem, ” he said, smiling briefly. “ Anyway, I’m just trying to remember where I have to avoid. ”

“ Yeah, that’s probably fair enough, ” I said. Thinking about it, it must sustain really been catchy trying to retain on top of affair so a repetition of that earlier incidental didn’t happen.

He shook his fountainhead in defeat. “ I must sound like I’ve got such a big fountainhead, talking like that … ”

And you know, a year or so earlier I’d probably have agreed with him, but now I knew he wasn’t like that. “ No you don’t, ” I reassured him. “ If I was in your shoes I’d probably do the Sami affair. You’re just being sensible. ”

Sensible ? Sirius Black ? What potions was I on ? He seemed to let the same reaction as he had a bit of a foreign construction on his grimace, and to my surprise he stopped near the top of the stairs on the mo floor, unnervingly last to some of the very mistletoe he was trying to avoid.

I stopped with him, acutely aware that we were alone in the desert corridor. “ Was it something I said ? ”

He just looked at me, an saying on his look that I didn’t recognise. “ Laura … ”

I looked back at him, perplexed and wanting to get back to the pillar before I did something stupid. Quivering Wreck 293 ; Laura 2. Or something like that. “ What ? ”

But whatever it was I never learned, as at that moment Peeves, most probably bored with moving fleck of false mistletoe, decided to interrupt us by bowling the head of a stone gargoyle down the hall at us. Distracted, we both jumped out of the way, breaking into laughter as we watched the head roll down the step and rap over a courting of armour when it reached the bottom.

The accompanying clash unsurprisingly brought Filch, and we spent a good five hour explaining to him why we were out of our common room after supper. Fortunately we weren’t far from the office of prof Perkins, the new Defence teacher, and she surprised us by coming to our defence & ndash ; her window overlooked the Quidditch pitch and apparently we had been noticed attending practices before. In the end we were allowed to go back to the tower without penalisation.

Sirius laughed quietly as we reached the top of the short-cut stairs behind the tapis and headed up towards the seventh floor. “ You know, Laura, I should hang around with you more often. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten out of a detention so easily. ”

I laughed too. “ You’ve got too often of a report by now, ” I said. “ Whereas me, I get custody maybe five or six times a year, no one ever thinks I’m doing anything wrong. Although, ” I added, frowning, “ they might think you’re a bad influence on me so my charmed life might be coming to an end. ”

He looked shocked, but I caught the ghost of a grinning terpsichore around the niche of his back talk. “ Me, a bad influence ? Never ! ”

I smiled. “ You’re right, I don’t know where I could possibly cause got that idea from. Please forgive me for even thinking it. ”

“ I should say so, ” he teased. “ Next you’ll be saying that Prongs and I make a habit of being out of the vernacular room after time of day. And we all know that’s not true. ”

“ Of course not, ” I deadpanned. “ It’s certainly not you two who have an entire drawer to yourselves in Filch’s filing cabinet. ” OK, this was just a rumour, and I’d not been sent to Filch’s office in twelvemonth so I couldn’t verify it, but chances were it was genuine. And besides, he didn’t refuse it. “ It must be two early masses who just happen to cause the Saame names as you, ” I went on. “ I’m so dismal. How could I have even thought it ? However can I repay you ? ”

He winked and put a suggestive arm around my shank. “ Well, now you come to note it … ”

I froze involuntarily. Please don’t do that, I thought. Even as a gag, I can’t take it. It’s far too difficult not to give in and respond in some highly unfitting manner. It took a significant effort for me to continue calm and keep moving ( yep, yet another peak for quivering Wreck ), and I rolled my heart in what I hoped was a convince way.

“ Sirius, are we really going that far off reality ? Oh, gillywater, ” I went on, noticing we had reached the Fat gentlewoman, who had been in conversation with her friend Vi and appeared unimpressed at the interruption. She eyed us beadily and then grudgingly get around open, revealing the portrait hollow. Dog Star let go of me when we climbed through, but grabbed my arm before I could head up the stairs and turned me to confront him.

“ Why do you keep on doing that ? ”

“ Doing what ? ” I asked, baffled.

“ Saying stuff like that, being so far off realism. You’re selling yourself short. You know it’s not true. ”

I glared at him, almost hating him for what he was making me say. “ I know what’s realistic, what’s believable. And that’s not. ” Saying it out brassy made it seem so final, so existent that it almost killed me, but it was true. No one would ever be convinced by Sirius with someone like me.

He shook his head, not letting go of my arm. “ A class or two ago, maybe. But not now. ”

I just looked up at him resignedly. Why was he so utter ? It made it all so practically harder to admit. “ You’re being prissy. And I appreciate that. But we both know I’m right, so lay off pretending I’m not. ”

I didn’t consider what I’d said was all that remarkable & ndash ; in fact, I thought it was pretty obvious & ndash ; but Sothis looked stupefied and released his hold on me. Not bothering to wonder why he might have reacted like that, I made the most of my opportunity to escape up the girlfriend’stairs.
37
As December dawned I realised that my compulsion with Sirius was beginning to experience an inauspicious effect on my behaviour. I had started to withdraw into myself a lot, not talking much, seeking little company but The Virgin’s, succumbing to daydreams whenever I felt the need. It wasn’t salubrious but I wasn’t surely how to deplumate myself out of it, short of either confessing all or avoiding him altogether, which if I thought about it probably amounted to the same thing in the end. Eventually Mary started casting Cheering Charms on me whenever I was about to get any companionship, in the hope that it would fool citizenry enough so that I wasn’t quizzed on my behaviour.

Unfortunately Dog Star & ndash ; the unknowing crusade of everything & ndash ; wasn’t fooled, and had noticed that I wasn’t exactly myself. spoilt still, he seemed concern enough to tackle me on the subject, as I discovered one Wednesday. We were leaving the Great Hall after luncheon when he herded me into an empty schoolroom and sat me down on a mesa, standing in front of me. “ Laura, what’s the matter ? You can recount me, surely. ”

It’s better that I don’t tell you, I thought. You really don’t want to know that knowing I can’t have you is driving me crazy.

I looked at him, very uncomfortably cognizant of how close he was & ndash ; so close that I got distracted by dolt things like how long his eyelashes were, and the fact that there were molecule of bluing in those gray-haired heart. The urge to grab him and kiss him was almost overwhelming. His face was just there, that flawless face, and all I would have to do was reach up and pull his head towards me. No, Laura, becalm, I thought, realising with warning signal that my hand had actually started moving upwards to do just that. With an feat I put it back on the table and sat on it to ensure it didn’t go on any further outing, hoping he hadn’t noticed anything. ideate the rejection, I told myself. Imagine him thinking you were the next Elvira. The intellection was as efficacious as if a bucketful of snowfall had been dumped over me.

“ Nothing’s the matter, ” I said, fixing my gaze on a spot just past his left shoulder, thinking that if I wasn’t looking directly at him I would be less in all likelihood to be tempted to do something I’d regret. “ I’m fine. Really. ” I paused, wondering just how soon I could lead the room without seeming rude. My eyes flicked toward him again. “ flavour, Sirius, I need to be going. antediluvian Runes … ” That at to the lowest degree was admittedly, if I didn’t get a move on I might be latterly, and Professor Babbling didn’t look kindly on latecomers.

He didn’t look convinced. “ All right field then, don’t differentiate me. But something’s wrong. You haven’t been yourself lately, there’s something bothering you. ” He paused. “ Is everything okay at home ? ”

Was that what he thought ? “ No, it’s not that, they’re all fine, ” I said earnestly, realising too late that this was pretty often an admission price that there was something bothering me.

He smiled briefly. “ Good, so we can reign that out. But I’m your friend and I’m starting to get occupy about you. I’ll be keeping an eye on you and if it gets tough we might have to take action. ”

protagonist. The very word cut at me like a knife. Mary was my friend. So was Lily, and Martha, and Queen City. James was my protagonist. Remus was my friend. Even Peter, who was fast getting over his general fear of all thing female, could just about be counted as my Quaker. But Sirius … it wasn’t enough. No matter how a great deal I tried to win over myself that being admirer was a good thing, that I should throw the most of it as it was as a great deal as I was ever going to get, I couldn’t do it. Friends just didn’t cut it as far as Sothis was concerned. I wanted & ndash ; no, I needed more.

And that was the trouble, the theme cause of everything. And him saying he’d be keeping an eye on me just added to my inner tumult & ndash ; the Sir Thomas More tending he paid me the tenser I got. Why did he own to be so considerate ? When I’d thought he was a bit of a berk it was so much easier to not like him.

I took a breathing time. “ Don’t worry about me. I’m just a bit worked up about NEWTs, that’s all. ”

He raised an eyebrow. “ You’re sure that’s all ? ”

“ Yes. Yes, of course, ” I lied. “ rightfield as rain otherwise. And like I said, I really should get going. ”

“ right. If you’re sure. ” He stood back to let me pass, still looking a bit sceptical. “ I’ll see you later on then. ”

I hurried out of the room, heading quickly upstairs with a sigh of relief. antediluvian runic letter was the only class I didn’t have with him, so I could relax a bit. A bit, only, though & ndash ; Remus was the solitary former Gryffindor in that course of study so I was cognizant that anything I did or said could potentially get back to him.

backbone at the starting of one-sixth year when I’d decided on my triton subjects, what Sirius was doing wasn’t even a factor. Now, it was more important than anything, though I still hadn’t worked out whether I wanted him in my course or not. When he was there I felt nervous and uncomfortable ; when he wasn’t there I missed him. ( Quivering Wreck 371 ; Laura 2. Or maybe I was up to 3 by now. In any pillowcase, it was still a bit of a hammering. )

Anyway ancient Runes, while it didn’t have Sirius, did have Elvira, who occasionally still hassled me about Sothis’behaviour. I put her off as gently as I could, mainly because I was terrified I’d let on that I was just as obsessed as she was, and fortunately the fact that I sat with Remus was generally enough to shut her up. Today was no exception.

“ Laura ! ” she gasped as I hurried up the corridor to the classroom. “ What do you think of & ndash ; ” She was cut off by the room access opening, and I pushed my way to Remus’side as we moved inside.

“ Sorry, Elvira, ” I called over my articulatio humeri. “ Some other fourth dimension, maybe. ”

Remus grinned at me as we found our common desk. “ perfect tense timing, ” he said quietly.

“ It’s a skill I have, ” I said lightly, pulling out my copy of Magical hieroglyphic and logogram and putting my bag on the floor. “ Avoiding Elvira. toilsome than it sounds, let me evidence you. ”

He laughed. “ I’d believe it. Padfoot says pretty much the same thing. ”

Oh yeah. Sirius. Everything always came back to him, didn’t it. Hoping my cheeks were the Saame colour as the rest of me, I reached into my bag and found ink, flight feather and lambskin, and tried with mixed success to concentrate my attention on professor babble.

****

“ wellspring, tha’s it, ” Mary announced a pair of solar day later in the common room where we were trying to cook inroads into our mass of prep. “ I’ve had it. I canna dae any more than tonicht, I need a prisonbreak t’clear my brain. ” Her unfinished Herbology essay sat on the table in front of her.

“ I’m not done yet, ” I mumbled, frantically scribbling another sentence down. I was on a roll and didn’t want to unwrap the impulse.

“ Richt, ” said Mary. “ Well, I’m off t’bed. Goo’nicht ! ” She smiled brightly at me and, gathering up her Word, pinion and parchment, disappeared up the stairs.

The common elbow room had quietened down : it must have been getting close to midnight and people were gradually drifting upstairs to the dorms. Through the dwindling chatter I heard snatches of a muttered conversation somewhere behind me.

“ Go on, this is your best chance yet … ”

“ I don’t think so … Look, it’s not as easygoing as all that. And what if it doesn’t work out ? ”

“ It will, just do it ! Come on, you’re running out of time. ”

I shuddered. It was Sirius and Remus, and it sounded like they were planning a prank of some sort & ndash ; or Sirius was, solo as it so often had to be now that James II was otherwise occupied, and Remus, although a prefect, was egging him on. I scribbled down another sentence in my essay, my pot alert for whatever it was to pass off. But it was a false warning device & ndash ; after a couple of minutes null had happened, Sothis obviously deciding there would be a beneficial time for whatever they were planning. I dipped my quill feather in the inkwell and tried to regain my wagon train of opinion.

Unfortunately, the distraction had cut short my concentration and I wasn’t able to do any more of my assignment. Frustrated, after ten minutes or so I too packed up my books and headed to the student residence, hoping a upright dark’s sleep would be the soda water I needed.

Just as I had finished getting ready for bed, Charlotte came bounding into the room in great excitement. “ Guess what ! ” she exclaimed to no one in particular. “ Remus just asked me to the ball ! ! ”

We all rushed at her with clinch and congratulations : she’d been wanting this for years. I started to re-light the lamps as she beamed at us.

“ Just now ? ” Lily asked eagerly.

“ Yeah, I just got back from the library, ” she breathed, “ and he came right up and asked me as soon as I got into the coarse room. ”

“ About meter, ” Martha said loyally. “ He hasn’t get it on what he’s been missing out on. ”

“ That makes three of us with dates, ” charlotte said happily. “ We just need to line up lad for Laura and Blessed Virgin, and we’re set. ”

“ How about Peter ? ” asked Martha, looking at Virgin Mary and me with a wide smile on her grimace. “ He doesn’t have a date yet, and I’m sure he’d be thrilled to charter either one of you. ”

We both laughed. “ Sorra, Martha, I’m nae quite tha’despairing ye & rsquo ;, ” Mary said lightly. “ Think I’d prefer a man who’s a’th’verra leas’my height, an’preferably taller. ”

“ Couldn’t agree more, ” I nodded. “ Particularly with heels on, I don’t want to be half a chief taller than my appointment. Or more. ”

“ OK then, Mulciber ? ” joked Queen City.

“ Probably has a date already, ” I said, relieved to ingest a salutary apology why he wouldn’t do. “ Scylla Pritchard has her talons in him like you wouldn’t credit. ”

“ Gibbon, then, ” Lily suggested with a grin.

We both grimaced. “ Too a lot o’th’gorilla, ” said Mary.

“ Yeah, he walks like he’s got a Citrullus vulgaris under each arm, ” I agreed. “ Can you imagine how that would feel to trip the light fantastic toe with ? ” I got off my bed and started an ( admittedly bad ) impersonation of Gibbon dancing.

“ Too har’fer him t’barricade his brass knuckles draggin’on th’background an’all, ” Mary added.

Lily was laughing. “ Never was a individual more appropriately named, ” she said. “ Gibbon by name, gibbon by coming into court, Gibbon by nature. How he got to be prefect is beyond me. ”

charlotte smiled again. “ okeh, how about Gerry Stebbins ? ” This was aimed at Mary, who had been trying to avoid Gerry for the best voice of two years.

“ Oh please, ” said Blessed Virgin, laughing. “ I’d rather go wi’th’gian’squid. ”

“ No, sorry, he’s Lily’s, ” I grinned. “ After she said she’d rather go out with the colossus squid than St. James the Apostle, and now she’s going to the chunk with James IV, the calamari has got to be disappointed. ”

“ There’s always Sirius, ” Martha said carelessly, making my heart skip a beat. “ He doesn’t have a date yet. ” I held my breath anxiously, just waiting for her to bet up and smile mischievously at me. Had she worked out that I liked him ? That would be a nightmare. However, she didn’t appear to be paying me the svelte tending, not even out of the corner of her oculus, so it looked like my secret was still good. For the time being, at least.

“ Of course he doesn’t have a date yet, ” Lily said absently, heading into the can to brush her teeth.

“ Why would you say that ? ” Charlotte asked, assuaging my curiosity.

Lily stopped in the privy doorway and turned around. “ Haven’t you noticed ? ”

“ Noticed wha’? ” asked Mary, her eyes flicking to me.

Lily just sighed and looked at Martha. “ Remember how you said once, geezerhood ago, that when he falls for mortal, he’ll decrease hard ? ” she asked, leaning against the door skeletal system.

Martha nodded. “ Yeah, what about it ? ”

“ I think that’s actually happened, ” Lily explained. “ Normally he’d have a date sewn up by now, just to get the fan club off his rear, but this class he’s not asked anyone, and I think that he’s trying to get the guts up to ask someone in particular. ”

My heart sank and I could feel a snag forming in the corner of my eye. If Lily was right, there went any promise I had with him. Not that I’d had any to begin with, but a girl can daydream, can’t she ?

“ Ye’re trusted ? ” Blessed Virgin was asking. “ Falco columbarius, imagine if tha’s true up … ”

I shook my head. “ I can’t imagine him ever being insecure about a girl, ” I said, trying to win over myself as well as the others, and stubbornly refusing to pick up Mary’s eye.

“ I don’t know, ” Charlotte said slowly, pulling off a horseshoe. “ I think I can indorse Lily’s theory up. ”

“ How ? ” Martha asked interestedly.

“ Oh, I overheard something in the program library the other day. Or was it yesterday ? ” She frowned slightly. “ Sometime recently, anyway. James and Sirius, ” she added, taking off the other shoe and looking around at us. “ What they were doing there, I don’t know, but it was definitely them. ”

“ Sounds suspicious already, ” Martha said, giggling. “ What did they say ? ”

“ James was saying something like, I’m probably not the expert individual to ask considering it only happened when Lily jumped on me, ” charlotte began. Lily blushed scarlet. “ And then he said, you might as well try it, and since when has any girlfriend ever turned you down anyway ? Which, you’ve got to acknowledge, with Sirius it’s a good point. ” She paused. “ I never intended to listen in, you know what I think of that, but this sounded too interesting to miss. ”

“ carnival enough, ” I said, almost dreading what she was going to say but ineffectual to moderate my curiosity. “ Go on. ”

“ Well, Sirius said James should know this was different, and James said go on, why, which I admit was my reaction as well, ” Charlotte continued, throwing her wind cone into the laundry hoop. “ And Sirius said something like, this fourth dimension it matters if she says no. ”

Mary didn’t often look surprised, but in this subject her eyes looked like they would pop out of her school principal. Martha was distinctly taken aback, but Lily just looked serious-minded, pleased this was confirming her theory. More than a short concerned that my eye was about to part, I busied myself with pretending to rule myself a new record book to read in the raft next to my bed, hoping no one had noticed the look on my face.

“ Anyway, ” Charlotte was saying, “ James said something like, well I don’t think she will anyway. Say no, that is. And Sothis said, no, she hates me, or something like that. So Saint James asked why he thought that, and Sirius said that he’d just gone to babble to her and she wouldn’t even look at him. So whoever she is, it sounds like she’s in a bit of a strop with him. He sounded pretty upset about it at any rate. So yes, I think he’s definitely insecure about someone. ”

I found myself shaking my head word in astonishment. Imagine being annoyed with Sirius. Imagine talking to him and not even looking at him. Was that even potential ?

Queen City was still talking. “ So James said that it didn’t sound expert if that was true, and then he said well, I guess you’re not going to secernate her anytime soon then. He sounded a bit disappoint, it was like this has been going on for a patch and James just wants it over already. ”

“ Di’they name her ? ” Mary asked.

“ No, they didn’t, ” admitted charlotte. “ I was hoping they would, but no luck. And Sirius said he’d tried but had lost his nerve, and now he’d only say something if things improved, and then he said that James wasn’t allowed to severalise her either. He sounded like he wanted to be for certain that whoever she is will react in the compensate way when he does say something. ”

I raised my head and looked around at them, hoping desperately that I didn’t look too distraught, and even more desperately that Lily and charlotte were awry. “ well well well, ” Martha was saying as she pulled on a nightshirt. “ Looks like it has happened at last. This should be great to watch. marvel who she is ? ”

Lily smiled. “ I think I’ve got a fair idea, ” she said slowly, as if to herself.

“ Well ? ” charlotte demanded. “’Fess up, issue forth on ! ”

Lily shook her head. “ No, I’m not a hundred percent sure, ” she said, more loudly this clock time, looking at all of us in turn. “ That is, I thought I was, but this has confused me a bit. See, the young lady I’m thought process of isn’t annoyed with him, so something’s not right there. And if I am right and it is who I’m thinking of, she won’t want me telling tales. ” She paused, her face screwed up in assiduousness, before going on. “ Though I also think she’d probably call for some convincing, I’m not sure she’d believe him even if he did tell her. ”

Mentally I vowed to keep a close up eye on things over the adjacent couple of week, to see who he was watching or talking to, or who was giving him the cold shoulder. After all, everyone the likes of to cognize what they are up against. I’m ashamed to say I was also hoping that whoever she was would put him off a bit longer & ndash ; after all, if he was ace then there was a vague, outside theory that he might give up on her and demand someone ( okay, me ) to get his thinker off it.

Mary groaned. “ Tha’s nae fair, ” she said. “ If ye’re nae goin’t’tell us, ye shouldna hae said anythin’a’all. ”

Lily smiled. “ I’ll check with James, ” she said. “ He’ll know what’s going on. And he’ll know if I should tell you or not. ” And she ducked, laughing, as Martha hurled a carpet slipper at her head.

****

Sebastian Quirke from Ravenclaw had been asking Madonna to the ballock about once or twice a fortnight since it was announced. He was a nice enough boy and was clearly rather keen on her, but Blessed Virgin was hesitant as he shared a hall with Gerry Stebbins, who had been after Mary ever since he’d taken her to the ball in one-fifth year, and she felt it would be a slight too awkward for her to be well-fixed. However, after the fifth time he asked her, this metre well away from Gerry as he cornered her when she left the program library, she decided to turn over him a chance.

That left me as the only female person Gryffindor without a date, which I admit was a bit stressful. Surely I wasn’t that repugnant that no one wanted to take me ? Ordinary, yes, I could share with that, but not repulsive. ( Even I had an ego that needed maintaining. ) I was almost at the point of asking someone myself, but I couldn’t work out who would be the best candidate. After all, it could end up as an actual engagement, so it had to be someone I could conceive of myself snogging. Of course, I wanted to ask Sirius, who was also still dateless, but if he really had his heart set on someone else there wouldn’t have been much point, and I wasn’t sure I’d have the guts to do it anyway. To use his Holy Writ from six calendar month earlier, I had to ‘ pick up and impress on’and bump myself a comfort prize.

“ Don’t worry so much about it, Laura, ” Martha said as we left magic spell one day in the first week of December. “ You’re a good looking girl, someone is bound to ask you soon. And you’ve still got a fortnight. ”

I smiled wryly. “ I hope so. I couldn’t care showing up at the bollock by myself. Even Peter has a date ! ” Which was unfeigned, but he was going with his cousin Fortuna, so if I was being honest it didn’t really matter as a date.

Bernie Carmichael, walking in front of us, whirled around in surprisal. “ Laura Cauldwell, you seriously don’t have a date yet ? ”

“ No, ” I said, wondering why that was so strange.

“ You’re kidding, ” he said, falling into step with Martha and me. “ No one’s asked you ? ”

“ No, ” I repeated, looking at him curiously. “ Why ? ”

“ My word, ” he said as though to himself. “ I thought for surely you would deliver been snapped up weeks ago. ”

He made me sound like a express waiver broom handle or something, but I was thankful for what he was trying to say. “ Thanks, Bernie, ” I said. “ I appreciate that. ”

“ You, uh, don’t want to go with me, do you ? ” he asked after a short circuit intermission.

I looked up at him, I’m ashamed to say giving him the look-over as a potential engagement. Average height, red hair, gullible eyes, fortune of freckles, but a very friendly face and one you couldn’t possibly dislike. Looked like a decent physique as well, though it was hard to narrate through the school robes. If it came down to it, if I tried to forget Sothis had ever been born, I probably could give him a decent snog. “ Thanks, Bernie, ” I repeated. “ I’d love to go to the ball with you. ”

He gave me a broad smile, which lit up his look. “ For very ? You’re for sure ? That’s keen ! I’ll meet you in the Entrance manse at eight, then ? ”

“ It’s a date, ” I said, smiling again, and he took off towards Ravenclaw tower, tripping over his own feet somewhat but beaming all the Saame.

Martha grinned at me. “ Told you mortal was bound to ask you soon ! ”

“ Yeah. I didn’t substantiate you intend immediately, though. ”

“ well, neither did I, ” she conceded, “ but still, it worked out well, didn’t it ! ”

“ And he’s not too bad, ” I said. “ If it doesn’t make out, I can always fall back on Dad’s rule about not going out with anyone this year. ” It had worked with Caradoc earlier in the year, after all, so why not use it to my vantage again if I needed to ?

By the end of the calendar week Sothis, whose temper seemed to experience been getting the honest of him lately, had asked Anne Mockridge, a very pretty sixth-year from Ravenclaw. Rumour had it she had already had a escort when Sirius asked her, but ditched him on the spot for what she saw as a better offer. I was pretty sure she wasn’t the girl Lily had been thinking of that nighttime in the hall & ndash ; if nil else, he didn’t seem overly thrilled that she’d said yes & ndash ; but from all my thrifty observation I couldn’t for the life of me work out who the girl actually was. No one seemed to be in a bad mood with him, no one was avoiding him, and he wasn’t acting any differently than how he had been all year. Frankly, it didn’t seem to give any mother wit at all.

****

The morning of the globe dawned brilliant and cold, and the background were covered in a fresh blanket of snowfall that must ingest fallen overnight. It looked rather enticing but not enough to lure us from the passion of the Gryffindor park room.

The nine seventh-years had breakfasted together and went back to the tower as a grouping to sit by the fire, a use which was becoming more and more commons since Lily and King James I’relationship had brought us all together. Eventually, as often happens at that time of twelvemonth, the conversation drifted to holiday plans.

“ How are you spending Yule, Queen City ? ” Lily asked lazily.

“ We’ve got a big dejeuner at Uncle Quentin’s home, ” Charlotte said. “ Whole kin’ll be there, which should be interesting & ndash ; More than 40 of us in one dining room. ” She smiled at the view. “ What about you, Lils ? ”

“ I’m not entirely certain, ” said Lily, frowning slightly. “ Family dos have become more difficult since I came here. virtually of the extended class don’t know about me, and Petunia’s not talking to me any more, so it might be a quiet day. Though I’ll school principal to James’blank space after lunch on Boxing Day, ” she added, beaming at St. James, who looked like Christmas had just come early.

“ I can relate to that, ” I said. “ Not going to James’station, obviously, but crime syndicate effect being tricky because of the solid magic thing.’Cause Mum’s a Muggle, and most of her family have no idea about us, so we always have to have classify political party, one with magic trick and one without. I think they’re both going to be on the same day this yr, and both at our place, which will keep open us on our toes a bit. ”

“ How does that employment ? ” Remus asked with a grin.

I shrugged. “ Lunch with one lot, dinner with the other. And lots of cleaning up using conjuring trick in between. Means you’re absolutely stuffed by the end of the day. ”

Martha was nodding. “ Yeah, we’ve got two different stops too, to see each set of grandparents. But they’re not at our place, though, so I guess that makes my day comfortable than Laura’s. St. Peter ? ” She looked at putz, who was sitting on the floor leaning against the arm of King James I’redact.

“ Lunch with Mum and Dad, then over to Prongs’position for dinner, ” he said.

Remus nodded. “ Lapplander with me. ”

Queen City looked surprised. “ Do you lot always have Yule dinner together ? ”

“ Not at all, ” Saint James the Apostle said hurriedly. “ This year is a particular case. We’re expecting Moony’s furry little problem to be making an appearance. ”

“ What ? ” Martha asked what I was thinking. How could they do it when his favourite were going to misconduct ?

King James I clammed up. “ Never head, ” he said, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “ Let’s just leave it as they’re all coming over for Christmas dinner. ” He quickly changed the subject. “ What’s going on at your place, Mary ? ”

Mary, also sitting on the trading floor, looked up. “ We’re headin’back t’Scotlan’fer Christmas Day this class, ” she said. “ Catch up wi’all Pa’s phratry, we dinna see them tha’much since he died. Though wi’Uncle Magnus tha’micht be a goo’thing. ” Her father’s brother, Magnus, was widely regarded as something of a nutter and had even tried to reintroduce Creaothceann, a Scotch sportsman that involved hurling rocks at people’s heads and oddly sufficiency had been banned in the eighteenth C, back into mainstream wizarding society. There was a reason his soubriquet was ‘ Dent-head’. Mary went on. “ Then back t’London on Boxin’Day an’lunch wi’Ma’s slope an’all. Shoul’be grand. ” She grinned in expectation.

“ How about you, Sirius ? ” charlotte asked. “ What are you doing for Christmas ? ” I started a fiddling & ndash ; it occurred to me that this word about our folk gatherings had probably been a bit insensitive, and I didn’t fancy the mentation of getting his mood up. However, if it bothered him he didn’t let it evidence, instead shrugging with a bit of a distracted look on his font.

“ What I always do, ” he said indifferently, as though she had asked him about the atmospheric condition. “ Spend it with the Potters. ”

“ Do you ever miss it ? ” Lily asked a little tentatively. “ Being with class, I mean. ”

Fortunately his petulance seemed to have taken a vacation that day, and he just laughed that bark-like joke of his. “ Are you kidding ? I miss it like I miss a gob in the head. ”

She just looked at him sceptically. “ They can’t be that bad, surely. ”

This meter Henry James joined in the laughter. “ Put it this way, Lils, ” he said, giving her a hug, “ if he was still talking to them, he wouldn’t be talking to us. ”

Sirius nodded. “ Well, maybe Charlotte and Martha. And possibly Mary, though I doubt it. But that’d be it of you lot. ”

Charlotte smiled. “ Why us ? ”

“ Pure-bloods, ” King James said promptly.

“ But so are you, ” I pointed out.

He shook his head. “ Nah, I’m a blood traitor, he certainly wouldn’t be allowed to talk to me. ”

Sirius plainly agreed. “ Yes, the Potters used to be okay, but then they started agreeing with some of the pro-Muggle legislation so that pushed them right out to the edge of who’s acceptable. And then Prongs is going out with a Muggle-born, so that definitely puts him on the banned list. ”

“ And Moony and Wormtail are both half-bloods, so they’re on the outer right there, ” added James. “ Plus there’s Moony’s furry piffling problem, which would also count against him. ”

“ They’d discount rate him because of a coney ? ” Charlotte was incredulous and I noticed Remus looking a little uncomfortable.

“ You’d be surprised, ” Sirius said almost ominously. “ So Prongs, Moony and Wormtail are out, so I’d definitely need to find some new best friends. Mulciber, perhaps, my mother’d like him. And then there’s you, Lily, a Muggle-born, so like James said that definitely principle you out as someone to even utter to. And Laura’s a half-blood, but not just any half-blood, you’re the worst eccentric, ” he went on, looking at me.

I looked at him in surprise. “ There are types ? ”

“ Of course of study there are, ” he said. “ You’re not half Muggle-born, but actually half Muggle. Admittedly they don’t see it as lots of a departure, but it’s definitely a footfall down. And your dad, who as a pure-blood might have been your saving gracility, works in Muggle sexual relation and even married a Muggle, so that makes him more than of a line treasonist than Prongs is. So you’re way out, almost as bad as Lily. ” I was very thankful he wasn’t talking to his family unit any Sir Thomas More, if that was what he would accept to grapple with.

“ But Charlotte and I are okay ? ” asked Martha, her eyebrows raised.

“ To a detail, ” Canicula agreed, nodding. “ I think the Trimbles and the Hornbys would pass the run as acquaintances and maybe even dinner party party guests, but I certainly wouldn’t be allowed to marry either of you. Families not nearly old enough. And being in Gryffindor would be a mark against you, too & ndash ; not as bad as Hufflepuff, but definitely not good. ” He paused and looked at Mary. “ And Virgin Mary, though you’re a pure-blood, crazy Uncle Magnus would probably consider against you. ”

The Virgin nodded. “ Tha & rsquo ;, an’my brither’s marryin’a Muggle-born this summer. ”

Martha feigned disappointment at this news while Dog Star groaned. “ Right, that push you out completely. Forget we ever spoke. ”

“ I’ve learn aboot th’total darkness, ” Mary agreed with a smile. “ Though I’m nae indisputable ye’d be able t’fin’anyone t’marry, if they’re tha’strict. ”

James laughed again. “ Got it in one, Mary. There are so few pure-bloods kin left, particularly the really old ones, that it’s no surprisal they’ve resorted to marrying their own cousins. ”

“ Second cousins, ” Canicula corrected, the looking on his case halfway between a smile and a glare. “ They’re second cousin. I’m not quite as connatural as you like to make out. ”

Lily gasped. “ Your parents are indorsement cousins ? ”

He nodded, his reflection sour. “ Yep. Both Joseph Black as well, which is why I’m such a dashing hopes to them. Not nearly enough pride in the syndicate name for their liking. ”

Charlotte looked confused. “ I’ve never understood that. What’s the difference between a first base cousin-german and a second cousin ? ”

“ The connection goes back one more than generation, ” Sothis explained. “ First cousins have the Same grandparents, whereas s cousins have the like great-grandparents. If you’re somebody’s bit cousin then your respective parents would deliver been cousin. And that means that inbreeding is considered to be to a lesser extent of an issue. ”

“ Oh, right. ” Charlotte looked like she was having difficultness trying to work out the logistics in her heading, but I had a interrogation burning in me and decided to leave her to her machinations.

“ So, ” I asked, “ who would you be allowed to get married ? ” Not me, obviously, but I wanted to fuck what he’d have ended up with if he’d kept to the family traditions.

He looked at me curiously. “ Well, as eldest son and lead successor to the ‘ Noble and Most antediluvian menage of Black’” ( this complete with his finger acting as inverted comma ), “ there’s a considerable screening appendage. She’d have to be a overnice, respectable pure-blood little girl from one of the oldest families, preferably personally chosen by my dear old mum and vetted several times to take a leak sure enough she’s appropriate and doesn’t have any skeletal system in her class tree. No Squibs, or anyone who married a Muggle, that sort of thing. It would help if she’d been in Slytherin, of form. And she’d be obedient and virginal & ndash ; yes, definitely virginal, ” he added, responding to tool’s snigger, “ we can’t have any soiled commodity arriving at the House of Black. ”

Martha snorted in disgust. “ Soiled goods ? You make her sound like & ndash ; I don’t know, a commodity or something ! ”

Sirius smiled sourly. “ wellspring, that’s what she’d be. Women who marry Blacks are only there to leave successor. They’re chosen based on their reproduction potential. ” He grinned suddenly, looking around at our faces. “ You all look shocked. What did you think it was like ? ” We were all dumbstruck so he went on. “ Where was I up to ? ”

“ Obedient and virginal, ” provided peter, a smirk coming back to his look.

“ Right, ” said Sirius. “ So she’d be obedient and pair of virginals and in all likeliness have absolutely no pastime in me beyond my finis name, parentage club and Gringotts vault. And we’d be married in an all pure-blood ceremony, and then she’d be expected to pop out an heir every dyad of eld. Preferably Male, obviously, to hold open the epithet going, and hopefully more than one of those in subject something happens to the first one. Like running away, for example. ” He smiled briefly and for a split moment I was trusted I saw a sparkle in his optic. “ An heritor and a spare, as they say, ” he went on, making a human face. “ Once there are decent of those, I suspect, we’d end up in separate chamber and I’d drink myself to an ahead of time grave out of sheer boredom. ” He stopped again, looking back at me since I’d asked the original question, and when he spoke again his voice was sulfurous. “ What I want, of grade, is completely irrelevant, as my responsibility to the family is far more of import than anything as trivial as personal preferences. ”

I noticed again how aristocratic his features actually were, and realised with a startle that if he lived in the Muggle earthly concern he’d probably be a penis of the nobility. Which might have been a benediction in one way, because it would have meant I’d never have met him and therefore wouldn’t be obsessing about him like I was. Fortunately the wizarding world was more classless & ndash ; no royal family, no pep pill class, so to speak, though some families ( like the Blacks ) had appointed themselves as that anyway. But the expectations heaped on him were worse than I’d thought & ndash ; no wonder he ran away, if he’d had that to look forward to. And I wasn’t the only if one to think that, from the look of the faces around me, though Remus, Jesse James and even Lily looked suspiciously like they were trying not to smile.

charlotte spoke first. “ I knew it was bad but I never realised it was as bad as that, ” she said. “ No wonder you got out. You’d end up with Scylla Pritchard ! ”

He shook his question and grinned suddenly. “ I did say virginal, think of ? No, more likely Maggie Flint, but I suspect she’s probably got too much of a mind of her own to make the grade. The Carrows aren’t an old decent family line I wouldn’t think, and Baddock and Urquhart are half-bloods so they’re out. ” He paused, his human face turning sour again. “ But why stop at our year ? Age is irrelevant when you’ve got a dynasty to continue. ”

“ Well, ” Lily said bracingly, “ now we know why you left. I’d say it’s definitely better to be broke and homeless than having to deal with that sort of rubbish. ”

He grinned again. “ Yep, now it’s Regulus’turn, ” he said. “ The spare to exchange the heir. He can grapple with all the principle and expectations and wed the lovely honorable Slytherin virgin our lamb mother picks out for him. I think I’d rather get Kissed by a Dementor than have a life story like that. ”





writer’s note : A nice long chapter to welcome you back after the break ! Hope you enjoyed it. And a big thank you to Georgia Weasley who helped me ensure it complied with the ToS. : D



38
At lunch time my attention was diverted from my beef casserole by my date for that even, Bernie Carmichael, stumbling into the Great Charles Martin Hall suffering, yet again, from a whammy of some sort. I groaned.

“ looking like Bernie’s been in the wars again, ” I muttered to Mary.

She giggled. “ Wha’is it this time ? ”

“ Jelly-Legs, by the looks of it. Or something similar. ”

To be reliable, I was starting to sustain second thoughts about going to the chunk with him at all, as this sort of matter appeared to be business concern as usual as far as he was concerned. I didn’t know him all that well and hadn’t really paid him a good deal attention in the yesteryear few years, but from what I had noticed ( admittedly, I’m ashamed to say, only dating from the meter he had asked me to the ball ) he did seem to be a regular target for practical jape and errant whammy. One day he had wandered into the Great Hall at tiffin metre quite obviously suffering from a mislaid Hair-Thickening Charm. Another clip he’d had to allow for Charms early after he found himself in the track of a wayward spell that made him grow feathers, and on yet another occasion he was sent to the hospital wing after being hit with a Babbling execration which meant that he was ineffectual to stop talking, something that didn’t go down very well with professor McGonagall in that day’s Transfiguration of Jesus class.

After we watched him very gingerly try to climb over the bench to take a seat at the Ravenclaw table, I turned to Mary again. “ Has he always been the fag of everyone’s joke, or does he just have really bad luck with being in the wrong place at the untimely time ? And, in either example, how on earth did he end up a prefect ? ”

“ I dinna ken, ” she said dismissively, reaching for some steak and kidney pie. “ Bu’it prob’ly doesna matter much, anyway. Ye just require t’dance wi’him a couple o’times an’then ye can fin’someone better t’talk t’. ”

“ So long as he’s not jinxed in the meanwhile, ” I said grimly. “ Really, it looks like the form of boy I attract hasn’t improved in the svelte. kind of than a decent date for tonight, I’ve been landed with an eternal patsy. With my luck he’ll lose the ball entirely because he’s stuck in the infirmary annexe after being hit with yet another hex, and I’ll be sitting there on my own all night. ”

“ Aye, good poin & rsquo ;, ” she conceded. “ Ah, well, maybe ye’ll be in luck an’he’ll mak’it t’the nut i’one piece. ”

I nodded. “ Yeah, fingers crossed. ”

Fortunately Bernie opted not to join the throng of scholarly person having a Abronia elliptica fight after lunch on the lawns, probably figuring he’d be belike to interrupt a leg or something. Mary and I, however, had no such misgiving, and were having a cover girl prison term hurling snowball at whoever happened to be in our way at the time. Or ( in my case ) whoever was near Sirius, because it gave me a commodity self-justification to look in his general commission. Sad, I know, but it was as salutary as I was ever going to get so I allowed myself this one indulgence.

James River, as a pursuer for and captain of the Quidditch team, was an excellent throw and was interfering showing off to younger scholar, demonstrating both range and accuracy to wide of the mark plaudits. He was making a display of hitting each one in number thunder on the chest just below where the collarbones met, not too voiceless but sufficiency to leave a damp spot on their cloaks, which they all laughed at until it was their turn to get hit. Lily stood off to one side, smiling indulgently but occasionally shaking her head as she watched him, and way off by the palace Severus Snape watching from a distance, fury and rancour leaching out of him as their relationship showed itself to be even more prove and marked.

So far I had managed to avoid getting hit by a sweet sand verbena myself & ndash ; as well as being a pretty accurate throw I was also, as Mary had pointed out at the beginning of condition, rather good at dodging matter, a throwback from a childhood spent getting out of the way of whatever spells Bea shot at me. Then suddenly I was cleaned up from behind by a orotund snowball, and turned to see a grin Peter.

“ That was a cheap shot, ” I said, picking myself up, “ hitting me when my spinal column was turned. ”

“ I’d never have got you otherwise, ” he pointed out. “ You’re dodging them too well. ”

“ Right you are, ” I grinned, sending a snowball his way and catching him square on the nose, which to be bonnie was reasonably long and therefore easier to hit.

“ Oi, ” said Sothis’voice from one slope, “ no hitting my friends. ”

“ He hit me first, ” I protested, gladiolus to accept another excuse to look at him. “ And from behind, no lupus erythematosus. I was just defending myself. ”

“ Doesn’t subject, ” he said loftily. “ Do you have permission to throw snowballs at us ? ”

That was a bit rich, pretending that I needed his permission to take on region in the fight. And taking elision to my hitting Peter, of all people, when I suspected he had been about to subscribe aim at him himself. Man of my ambition or not, he wasn’t going to get away with that.

“ Well, Your loftiness, I didn’t actualize that I needed permission to operate in a snowball engagement, ” I said archly, rolling up another globe and throwing it at him. He moved to avoid it too late and it glanced off his right temple. You know, for person who was so good at dodging spells in a duel, he was surprisingly slow in a sweet sand verbena battle. Anyway, he retaliated by throwing one backbone at me, but it was off target and I evaded it easily. I sent one vertebral column quickly and hit him on the bureau. Admittedly I might as well have been pulling his hair in the primary schooling playground, but it was still distinctly satisfying.

James had stopped pelting fifth-years and was watching us, laughing. “ I think she’s got you beat, Padfoot, ” he said.

Sothis pouted. “ It’s not fair. She’s cheating, ” he complained.

I laughed too. “ Sirius Black, there is probably only one affair in the human race that I am better than you at, and it’s throwing rolled up bite of suspend weewee at people. It’s not much to gas about. Can’t you at to the lowest degree give me this ? ”

“ I guess, ” he conceded, trying unsuccessfully not to smile. “ But just this, intellect, and don’t go telling too many citizenry. We can’t have you getting head game of grandeur. ”

I rolled my optic. “ Oh, red cent, I was going to put it in my CV, ” I said, starting to write in the air with an imaginary number quill. “ Can bewilder Sothis Black in a sweet sand verbena fight. That’ll help me get a job, won’t it ? ”

He retaliated by sending another snowball my way, and the fight was back on in earnest, only ending when I hit him in the nose and it started bleeding. Oops. Sometimes my aim was too good.

“ Oh, pigeon hawk, I’m sorry ! ” I exclaimed, hurrying over to him. He was holding a hanky up to his human face to try to stem the ancestry catamenia, but unfortunately it had been a good shot with a very compacted snowball and his nozzle looked recrudesce. I pulled off my mitt and got my scepter out.

“ Episkey ! ” I commanded, and the olfactory organ realigned itself. Thank goodness, I didn’t want to be responsible for him looking LE than perfective tense on the dark of the egg. Even if it was for Anne Mockridge, or whoever it was that he wanted so badly he didn’t have the braveness to tell them. ( I kept reminding myself of that, to make for sure I didn’t get too carried away with my daydreams. ) I ran my fingerbreadth lightly down his nose, looking for any breaks, trying to make for sure it was definitely fixed. It appeared to be so I moved on to cleaning off his face. “ Tergeo, ” I continued, siphoning well-nigh of the blood off with my scepter.

He was looking at me strangely as I fussed over him, an odd spirit in his eye that I couldn’t place. I took his bloody handkerchief and cleaned that off as well ( noticing in the cognitive operation that it was monogrammed & ndash ; just in case I needed reminding of how far out of my conference he was ), and then looked critically at his expression, which aside from a bit of blood was just as flawless and handsome as it had been before he’d been hit. “ I’ve missed a bit, ” I said, reaching up with the now clean handkerchief to wipe a few drops of blood off his cheek. Suddenly I realised how close we were & ndash ; I had one hired man on his face and the other on his berm & ndash ; and I tensed up again, hoping I would be capable to pull this off without making a sucker of myself. Our faces were only in apart and he was staring at me, his grey-headed eyes inscrutable, and one of his manpower had come up to my human face and was gently wiping my hair away from my oral cavity. It was one of the most surreal matter I’d ever experienced.

Then, as abruptly as it had started, the bit ended. He had apparently realised what it looked like and pulled away, taking his handkerchief back from me in the appendage and shaking his head. “ I’m sorry, Laura, ” he muttered as he hurried away. I was left standing there, flustered, trying not to note the decease looks Elvira and her chum were sending me.

( Quivering Wreck 965 ; Laura 5. Or that was how it felt, at least. )

Madonna dodged a few Abronia elliptica on her way over to me. “ Wha’was tha’all aboot ? ” she asked as she guided me to refuge, away from the fight.

“ I have no idea, ” I said, feeling absolutely confused. It had felt for all the creation like he was about to kiss me, but obviously that couldn’t be right. In any case he had come to his senses before he’d embarrassed himself in front of half the schoolhouse. “ I broke his nose with a Abronia elliptica, but then I fixed it, and I was trying to get the rest of the blood off him … ”

“ I can tell apart ye wha’it looked lik & rsquo ;, ” she said, “ bu’ye prob’ly know tha’anyway. Actually … ” Her vocalization trailed off and she looked rather thoughtful as she glanced over her shoulder at the male child. Before I could quiz her about what she was thinking, though, we had reached the rest period of our dorm-mates, who looked like they were about to ask exactly the Saami thing Blessed Virgin had. Thankfully she silenced them with a looking at & ndash ; I didn’t have a clue what had just happened and needed to turn that out myself before I could evidence them. I was disquieted a bit by Lily’s expression, though : Martha and charlotte were clearly agog with peculiarity, but Lily just smiled to herself, as though she knew exactly what was going on. I made a mental note to ask her once we were safely out of the way, meaning away from the son, so she could clear up me as well.

“ Oh, look at the time, ” Lily said suddenly, her voice somewhat louder and high than usual. “ We’d well get upstairs and start getting ready ! ” It was only four o’clock but I was grateful to her for making our excuses. Looking around to flap our goodbyes, I saw that near of the educatee had red pip on their faces and arms from where they’d been hit and Charlotte, clearly wanting to make small public lecture until we were out of earshot, made a remark that without bruise-healing creams, most of the people at the ballock would be looking decidedly the worse for article of clothing. Relieved to be able to follow her confidential information, we spent much of the journeying up to Gryffindor Tower speculating on who would look the most black-and-blue if they let nature require its course on their skin.

****

We spent a leisurely four hours preparing for the musket ball, trading jewellery depending on what matched our dress robes best, experimenting with makeup styles and colouring, and checking out each other’s aroma to find out what we liked comfortably. Lily was steadfastly refusing to share her theory of the snowball incident that afternoon, so in the end I gave up and was content to let her try several unlike hairdo on me to work out which one suited me the most.

By the sentence we were fix to manoeuver downstairs, I thought Lily looked the best of all of us. In robe of tusk with a gold and emerald-green passementerie, and with her thickset auburn hair up in a French people knot, she was absolutely arresting, and for certain to transmit James into a hysteria when he saw her. She had accessorised with quite minimalist Au and emerald jewellery which set off her eyes just right, and with the help of one of Mary’s lipsticks she exuded a gleaming I was sure she hadn’t had before she’d finally gotten together with St. James.

Martha had opted for pale apricot-coloured robe with a revealing neckline and a bit of a frill around the stand of the skirt. She had left her hair down but had opted to turn her usually straight hair into round undulation which rolled down her vertebral column in a golden shower, and she wore one bold face necklace on that complemented her neckline nicely. It was a smell I would never birth chosen personally, but she pulled it off brilliantly and was bound to send Davey into a spin.

Charlotte had, as common, chosen bolder colours and wore robes of vermilion which fit her figure like they were sewn on. Her normally braided hair she had let out and tied it partially off her fount with a golden scarf, giving her hide a glowing show. Of course, this might also have had something to do with the fact she was going with Remus, but I was happy to attribute it to her choice of colours if she insisted. Her tan-coloured skin was highlighted with idle make-up and favourable earrings and she would experience stopped traffic in any metropolis you could give care to name.

Mary also went for bold face colours and had selected robe of a cryptic violet, with a deeper neckline than I had expected and a flowing skirt. She again pulled out the ash gray bangle her father had given her before he died, and we found her a silver chandelier with a Harlan Stone that matched the people of colour of the robe perfectly, and for her hairsbreadth she too opted for a French people knot. The overall effect was very impressive, and Virgin Mary hardly recognised herself when she looked in the mirror. “ Amazing, ” she breathed. “ I look almos’bonny. ”

I had decided on downhearted robe, kind of a muted royal blue, with a neckline so wide we had to do some fancy wandwork to preserve my bra straps out of survey. Lily and Martha had worked marvel with my mouselike brown hair and managed to hit it look rather fashionable in a half-up-half-down hairdo, despite the fact it emphasised rather than camouflaged the annoying curl my whisker refused to abandon, and I accessorised with the daffodil grip I’d got for my birthday and some gold earrings Charlotte had found at the bottom of her trunk. On the whole I was very pleased with the resultant and, like Virgin Mary, wasn’t convinced it was me looking out of the mirror. Lily clearly agreed, as she beamed at me once we had all finished and promised, “ You’ll knock his air sock off. ”

Finally it was almost eight o’clock, so we headed out of the dormitory and into the common room. Lily and Charlotte met their dates there, and the looks on the son’faces was Charles Frederick Worth bottling as they took in the vision who would be accompanying them. James, in very fashionable dress robes of dark green, seemed ineffectual to speak for a full minute of arc, while Remus, in gazump very similar to the navy wild blue yonder ace he’d tire two years previously, was doing his best impersonation of a fish, his rima oris gap and mop up silently as he took in Charlotte’s appearing. Even Sirius, looking incredible in extremely tasteful black robes with a grey trim and about to climb through the portrait golf hole, did a decide double take when he saw us, and opted to wait for us to join him before he headed downstairs to meet his date. Peter, it appeared, had already taken off with his cousin Fortuna.

And so Mary, Martha, Dog Star and I all headed down the step together to converge our dates, we girls walking more slowly than usual to make sure we didn’t trip over our robe or submit a tumble down the stairs due to our heel. Sirius laughed at us for declining the short-cut staircase from the twenty-five percent floor to the bit, but with the trick measure halfway down none of us trusted ourselves to keep our footing. Our timing was spot on anyway : it was pretty much right on eight o’clock when we arrived in the Entrance Hall.

Mary and I found Bernie and Sebastian fairly quickly & ndash ; Bernie’s red hair always was very typical, and fortunately he didn’t come out to be suffering the effects of any perverse whammy. He actually stared blatantly when he saw me, smiling broadly.

“ Wow, Laura, you look unconvincing, ” he said, offering me his arm.

“ Thanks, ” I said, smiling back at him. “ You look pretty safe too. ” It was avowedly. He’d managed to find some navy low dress robe that complemented rather than clashed with his hair, and without the heavy bag of school books I always saw him with he was distinctly taller. Which was probably a upright thing, as with my blackguard on there wasn’t much of a acme dispute.

“ I still can’t believe you’re coming to this with me, ” he chattered as the four of us made our way into the Great Hall. “ I was so sure that & ndash ; that somebody else would suffer asked you. ” It almost sounded like he had person detail in mind, though for the lifetime of me I couldn’t think who.

“ Well, ” I said, grinning, “ they didn’t. I’m clearly not as popular as rumour makes out. ” It was said as a joke but he took me seriously.

“ Oh, don’t think that. You’re one of the belles of the ball here tonight. ” We found a tabular array with room for four citizenry and prepared to finalise in for the dark.

The nutrient was excellent and the company just as ripe : Bernie and I were getting along very well, though there was a slight awkwardness to the conversation even despite the fact that the slug had the distinctive aftertaste of Firewhisky, an indication it had been spiked by person or other. However, I did my best to seem concerned in Bernie’s chatter, using all my willpower to center on that and ignore Sothis and Anne, who were with Peter and Fortuna at a table not far from the one Lily, James, Queen City, Remus and the early prefects from fifth class up & ndash ; and their day of the month & ndash ; were sharing at the front of the room. They were pretty much right wing in my line of sight and it was very difficult not to look at them, but I really didn’t want to know what they might be up to. After all, he might hold decided to gorge on the punch and use her as a way taking his mind off whoever it was he was after.

After the meal Lily and James River came over to give birth a confab & ndash ; well, Lily did, and I didn’t think James was game to let go of her hand in case she escaped & ndash ; and I used the conversation as another apology to not search at where Sirius was. I even pulled it off : I had to admit, my self-discipline was getting better. ( Another stop against Quivering Wreck ! Yes ! ) Eventually the band got underway and we all got up to dance.

Bernie and I danced to respective Song dynasty, then took a break while he went off to receive some Ravenclaw pals. He’d been a stark valet but it didn’t really feel like a appointment & ndash ; more like I was a cherished affair he was scared of breaking, or something out of his reach he didn’t make bold get too shut to. It was a bit stick and distinctly dissatisfactory, so I found Mary, who was at the bar with her date getting a drink, and we sat down at an empty table to talk it over while Sebastian tactfully went over to join Bernie and the other Ravenclaws.

“ It does seem odd, ” she agreed. “ So there’s naethin’there ? Nae sexual tension, nae script goin’where they shouldna, nae flirtin’? ” Mary always was one to get straight person to the point.

“ No, nothing like that. It’s not that he’s not perfectly charming and he doesn’t say all the good things, it’s just … ” I paused, looking for the flop give-and-take. “ It’s just that while he keeps saying how groovy I look and how amazed he is that I came with him, he’s & ndash ; distant. ” Still not quite the rightfield word, but probably as close as I was going to get at the here and now. “ Oh, I don’t know how to explain it really. Let’s talk about your night. Having fun ? ” I asked, grinning at her.

“ Fantastic, ” she replied, letting the change of dependent fling without comment. “ I dinna ken why I e’er considered nae comin’wi’Seb. We’ve bin gettin’along lik’a cauldron on fire. ”

“ So you don’t take care the concept of seeing him after tonight ? ” I asked, referring obliquely to the ball in one-fifth year after which she had tried to ditch Gerry Stebbins.

“ Definitely nae, ” she said, licking her lips. “ I think thi’one coul’las’a while. ” She grinned wickedly and I groaned and pretended to forefend my oculus.

Bernie and Sebastian were still at the bar with their friends so we sat and watched the dancer for a bit. Lily and Jesse James, holding each other closely, made such a cunning mates, even if they were invariably tailed & ndash ; at a distance & ndash ; by an increasingly jealous Snape. Charlotte and Remus were dancing together, closely but somewhat awkwardly, but that could feature been due to the fact that Washington Irving Mulciber and Scylla Pritchard kept intentionally bumping into them, trying to knock them over. Our mum oneirism was interrupted by Canicula, smiling that devastating smile and looking incredibly striking in those garment robes.

“ My turn now ? ” he asked easily, offering me his paw.

“ Sure, ” I grinned, standing up and trying not to let on that my genu felt a bit like jelly. Based on Bernie’s behavior and the fact that I couldn’t see him anywhere, he wouldn’t be too cut up if I danced with mortal else for a spell, and there was no way known I would accept ever been able-bodied to say no to Sirius. With that grinning, if he’d asked me to jump off a drop with him, I would most probably have agreed.

Not counting Bernie, who’d barely touched me really, and Gwendolyn’s wedding, where I was doing a job, the finally time I’d been this close to a boy, side to grimace, was with Bertram. Fortunately, I reflected, being held by Dog Star was null like being held by Bertram. For a start Sirius was rather taller, probably by about four or five inch. Luckily I had two-inch heels on which made the height remainder more doable, though usually it probably wasn’t too bad. ( In flat shoes I was about eye level with his shoulders. ) They were also quite different shapes & ndash ; Bertram was stocky and rather burly from his years of performing as a Beater, whereas Sirius, while he had broad shoulder joint and wasn’t what you would cry small by any stretch, had a leaner, more wiry build. And while Bertram would never have danced like this without a suggestive hand moving either up or down from the pocket-sized of my back, Sirius as nothing More than a Quaker was never going to try anything improper. Even without my obsession with him, I had to admit that dancing with him felt nice & ndash ; well-situated but not too intimidating.

We danced in secrecy for a while, enjoying the companionship and moving seamlessly in prison term with the music, though perhaps he was holding me a little nearer than I would have expected. Whether I’d had too lots of the poke or what it was, I didn’t know, but for whatever reason once we had started I felt absolutely prosperous in his branch. No tension, no terror, just comfortable. Maybe, if I closed my middle and let my mind wander a bit, I could even convince myself that, just for those few second, we actually were a duo.

Eventually, realising I should do something before I got too immersed in that idea and potentially did something embarrassing, I decided to give out the silence, pulling back a bit and looking him in the nerve. “ Do you recall the last prison term we danced together like this ? dorsum in fifth twelvemonth ? ”

“ Don’t prompt me, ” he shuddered. “ Bloody Prongs, handing out daring left right and centre. I felt so ashamed of myself. ” He paused. “ matter have changed a bit since then, haven’t they ? ”

It sounded like a rhetorical inquiry, but I decided to answer it anyway. “ Well, I guess I’m not the least in all probability candidate any Sir Thomas More, ” I said, stating the obvious.

“ It’s hard to conceive you ever were, ” he said quietly. “ And this time you actually know how to dance. ”

I smiled. “ Yeah, I was pretty ordinary back then, wasn’t I ? ”

“ I would never shout out you ordinary bicycle, ” he replied, his eye twinkling a little. “ But yes, maybe not the creation’s best dancer. ”

I giggled a little at the memory & ndash ; it was a bit unpleasant, but I had to take on it was funny. “ Frankly, I was surprised you even knew my name back then. ”

He looked scandalised. “ How could you even think that ? I’d been calling you by name for eld ! ”

“ I meant my first name. I’m not trusted that you’d ever used that before. ”

He was quiesce for a bit, evidently contemplating what I’d just said. I rested my chin on his shoulder, feeling his centre heartbeat rather quickly through the robes.

“ You know, ” he said a arcminute or so later, “ I was going to ask you to this testicle myself. ”

I looked back up at him, surprised. “ Really ? But I thought … ” I trailed off, thinking furiously. Was he saying what I thought he was saying ? I mean, if Lily’s theory had been right … no, that couldn’t be me, I had to make misunderstood. I thought I’d better bite the bullet and just ask. “ Are you sure you didn’t want to ask someone else and just didn’t get around to it ? ”

“ Why would I want to do that ? ” he asked, a storm look on his face. “ What on land gave you that estimate ? ”

“ Oh … nothing. ” I wasn’t about to put Lily’s figure out there. Hoping it wouldn’t issue, I rested my Kuki back on his shoulder and we danced the song out in companionable muteness.

When the music stopped, however, he didn’t let go of me. I had intended to go and find oneself Bernie again & ndash ; after all, he was my date & ndash ; but Sothis held fast. “ I don’t think so, ” he said quietly into my ear.

“ What do you have in mind ? ” There was no point trying to force my way out & ndash ; firstly he was much solid than me, and secondly I was actually quite enjoying being held by him. “ I really should be getting back to Bernie. ”

“ The thing is, ” he said, still quietly and almost nervously, “ now that I’ve got you, I have absolutely no intent of letting you go. ”

I looked at him, somewhat dazed. “ What do you entail ? ” I said again, aware I was sounding like a broken record.

“ And definitely not with you looking like that, ” he continued. “ You look unbelievable. I’ve hardly been capable to take my eyes off you all night. In fact, Anne ditched me half an 60 minutes ago because I wasn’t paying her any attention, I was watching you too much. ”

The next Sung dynasty had started by now, so he gently steered me across the floor again. I needed all my self-will to keep going and not just collapse in a heap on the floor. Was he really saying what I thought he was saying ? This was the stuff of dreams, it didn’t really bechance, and definitely not to me. Surely not ?

Suddenly he stopped moving, and I realised we were close to the threshold into the Entrance manse. “ Come on, ” he said, gripping my hired hand firmly, “ let’s get out of here. ”




Author’s note : Sorry for the cliffhanger-ish ending there, but I just couldn’t resist the temptation to make you all wait just that little bit longer. *grins evilly* tactile property complimentary to pelt me with whatever rotting fruit and vegetables you have handy. : )



39
impression more than a lilliputian logy, I let Sirius lead me outside. The winter air was cool against my cutis but I didn’t really feel it, there was too a lot going on inside me. We rounded a corner or two and found ourselves by the greenhouse.

He stopped and turned me to present him. “ So, Laura, this thing with Bernie Carmichael. Is it an actual appointment, or is he just someone to come to the musket ball with ? ” he asked, looking more nervous and vulnerable than I’d ever seen him.

“ Bernie ? ” I repeated. “ No, it’s not a particular date. He asked me to the bollock and I said yes. That’s about it. Why ? ”

“ zilch more ? ” he asked.

I laughed. “ Definitely not. He’s been holding me with kid baseball glove all night. It’s almost like he’s scared to touch me. ”

He grinned, though even that looked nervous. “ In that case, maybe I can get away with stealing you away from him. ”

“ You haven’t really stolen me, ” I pointed out. “ We’ve only been gone a couple of min- ”

He cut me off by kissing me, hesitantly at 1st, just a brush of his lips against mine, as though he was worried I might perpetrate away or something. And while that was never going to happen & ndash ; I wasn’t pudden-head enough to confuse this chance away & ndash ; it did contract a moment for me to get over my surprise. Having said that, though, my learning ability was obviously a bit behind the rest of me because before I realised what was happening I had my branch around his neck and was pulling him back towards me, seeking his lips again. And, when I found them, this metre they stayed.

Wow. Double wow. And to think I’d thought kissing Bertram was good. This was unbelievable. So attender, so delicate in some ways, so self-assured in others. His back talk were soft and affectionate against mine and he tasted delicious. Martha had been right & ndash ; he was a sensational kisser.

And then, suddenly, he stopped, and so did I, horrified that he might have come to his skunk and was wondering what he was doing. But he just smiled softly and said, “ You have no mind how long I’ve wanted to do that. ”

“ Really ? ” The Good Book was out of my oral fissure before I could blockade it. “ But why me ? ”

“ I just can’t convince you how amazing you are, ” he said with mock exasperation, his hand running through my hair's-breadth. “ Don’t & ndash ; ” he knew I was going to ask about Martha, or Charlotte, or Anne Mockridge & ndash ; “ that argument hasn’t held urine for long time, and you know it. You are every bit as beautiful, and talented, and overbold, and exceptional & ndash ; in fact you’re to a greater extent than they are, more incredible than any other girl I’ve ever met. ” I gazed at him, searching for any sign he might be joking around before I let myself consider him, but his boldness was give & ndash ; it had lost its haughty look like it did when he was being echt. So that must mean that he actually … meant this ?

I didn’t know what to say, so I settled for, “ Thank you ”.

He kissed me again, and suddenly we didn’t need to say anything else. This prison term it quickly became more intense, more passionate, as I let myself consecrate in to what I’d been longing for all those calendar month, and soon enough I found myself pushed up against the rampart of Greenhouse tercet, trying in vain to pull him closer to me … the miniscule gap of air between us meant that we were nowhere near close enough. If a bingle whisker could birth fit in the gap, that meant we needed to be secretive. The need I felt for him right then was the most powerful virtuoso I’d ever had and I couldn’t have fought it even if I’d wanted to. I didn’t know ( or care ) how practically time was passing, all that mattered was that we were there, that we were together. I didn’t even sense the snowflakes that started landing on us until we each had a soft white coating on our dress gown.

Finally the snow got heavy enough so that even we noticed it, and we reluctantly broke apart and made our way back inside to the nut. Sirius put his cloak around my shoulders ( “ I can’t have you catching cold on me, not now ” ) and held me tight as we walked into the Great Asaph Hall. While I had no particular desire to rejoin the company, I did read that I had to apologise to my day of the month for running out on him like that.

I spotted Bernie’s red hair right away : he was dancing with Thalia Strout from Hufflepuff. I caught his eye and reluctantly moved away from Sirius, smiling apologetically. He lost no time in coming over to me, Thalia waiting a few G behind him while we talked.

“ I’m so good-for-nothing, Bernie, ” I began, but he cut me off.

“ Come to assure me you’re ditching me for Sirius Shirley Temple Black ? ”

I nodded, looking as remorseful as I could. “ I never intended to, but … ” I trailed off. What could I say ? The man of my dreams had just swept me off my feet and so everything else had paled into insignificance ? While it was the truth, I didn’t think it would be very tactful.

He smiled, though it came out a bit turn. “ I saw you two dancing together, ” he said, breaking the uncomfortable silence I had left. “ The way you looked at each early. Then saw him drive you alfresco, and you were gone for almost an hour. It didn’t take Merlin to forge out what was happening, he’s been after you for ages and you didn’t exactly discourage him. Besides, he’s been hexing me every probability he got for a dyad of calendar week now, so from my perspective this is probably safer. ” He paused, and when he spoke again his voice was bitter. “ I won’t say I’m not foiled. My own mistake, though. It was dumb of me to will you alone, it was only a matter of clip before he moved in. Then again, you were so obviously not occupy in me in the slightest that I wasn’t sure why I was even trying. ”

I stared at him, surprised & ndash ; I thought I’d put on a better show than that. “ It’s not that I don’t like you, Bernie … ”

He cut me off again. “ Yeah, yeah, but as a friend. I know. ”

“ I’m sorry, ” I said, ashamed of my behaviour. I must throw been an awful date. “ I didn’t realise … ”

He smiled again, still sourly. “ Hey, you tried, ” he said. “ At least you didn’t spend all Night gawking at him like he was at you. ” He shook his head irritably. “ Why he didn’t just ask you to this thing in the first plaza is beyond me, it would’ve made matter so much simpler. ”

Suddenly I remembered something he’d said earlier, and even as he turned to go to Thalia I called him back, unable to stop myself from asking the interrogation. “ Bernie, did you say that he’s been after me for old age ? How long is ages ? ”

Bernie looked surprise as he paused and faced me again. “ You didn’t know ? It’s been going on, I don’t know, almost of this term at least. I guess he probably was trying not to be conspicuous, though … and you do sit in front of him in classes so you probably couldn’t see him … but it was a bit obvious, really. To some of us, anyway : if your competitor is Sothis Black, you tend to notice, ” he said, his vox bitterness again. “ Listen, I should get back, ” he added, indicating Thalia, “ the following song’s starting. ” He turned his back on me before I could say anything else and walked Thalia back to the dance floor.

Sirius came and joined me as soon as Bernie had gone. “ Looks like he took it okay, ” he said, standing behind me and putting his coat of arms protectively around my shank.

“ Yeah, kind of, ” I said, still trying to take in what Bernie had said. “ He’s not all that happy, though. I feel a bit bad for him. ” I paused, thinking. “ Sirius & ndash ; ” I turned around, his limb still around me & ndash ; “ Bernie said he wasn’t surprised, that you’d been after me for months. ”

He blushed. “ And here was me, thinking I was being pernicious, ” he complained.

“ If it’s any help, ” I said, “ I didn’t have a clue. ”

He grinned and kissed my os frontale lightly. “ That’d be right, the one somebody I did need to acknowledge, and you had no theme. Though I was terrified you’d laugh in my face. ”

I smiled. “ Do you desire me to do that now ?’campaign I could if you like, ” I teased. “ Just to make you more prosperous … ”

He laughed and pulled me secretive to him. “ Can you think of any reason why we should continue in here rather than finding somewhere more private ? ” he asked quietly in my ear.

I looked around vaguely. I could see Queen City and Remus with Peter and Fortuna at the bar, and Mary and Sebastian in a far corner having a snog. Good destiny to them, I thought, smiling : Mary was having a skillful Nox. Lily and St. James the Apostle were cosied up on the saltation floor, seemingly engrossed in each early until Lily looked up and entrance my eye and, taking in the pot of Sirius and me, directed Henry James’attention to us and beamed. This clearly wasn’t a surprisal to her & ndash ; somewhere in the binding of my mind it registered vaguely that it must own been me she’d been talking about after all. Martha and Davey were nowhere to be seen. It looked like no one would overleap us.

“ None whatsoever, ” I responded.

“ Good. Neither can I. ” And he led me back out of the Marguerite Radclyffe Hall and up the marble staircase, only to check at the top and play to me again. “ Now, are you sure enough you want to do this ? ” he asked, looking at me searchingly.

I stared back at him, surprised. “ Why wouldn’t I ? ”

“ Because you’re not allowed to, ” he said, as though it was obvious. “ Didn’t your dad say no boyfriends this year ? ”

“ Oh, that, ” I said. “ No. Well, yes, he did, but I think I can ignore that if I want to, don’t you ? ”

He smiled briefly. “ You’re for sure about that ? I don’t want to piss you do anything you’ll repent later. ”

“ Absolutely certainly, ” I said. “ principle ? What prescript ? ” And I pulled him towards me to buss him again, probably enjoying it just that little bit more now he’d reminded me it was forbidden.

Eventually we settled in an empty classroom on the tierce story, one in the middle of the castling so there were no window to let in an icy draught. Sirius found a stout professorship and sat down on it, pulling me on to his lap, and started running his rim along my jawline, then down my neck opening and along my uncovered shoulder, his breath warm against my skin.

I wasn’t sure what I had expected, but it wasn’t this. This was aught like Bertram : he was being the perfect gentleman's gentleman. He touched only the most chaste region of me, but he just about reduced me to a deliquium anyway. He had this thing were he massaged me underneath my fuzz at the nape of my cervix, and it was unbelievable how a wide-eyed osculation on the inside of my elbow could make me palpate. I kept on the theme and focused my aid on his fount, neck, shoulders, wrists and hands. It was far more intimate than I would have expected and incredibly erotic.

The chaste report also had some unexpected side of meat personal effects. At one stage he even apologised for brushing my chest with his hand, and I almost fell off his lap in surprise. Since when did a boy say sorry for that ? I was more exploited to it being the first affair they reached for. I asked why he was apologising.

He looked at me solemnly. “ I think we should take this slowly, ” he said. “ Enjoy each microscope stage as very much as we can before moving on to the following. And we’ve only just started the first one. ”

I had felt like I was almost make to leap him then and there but I could see his reasoning. After all, we had deal of prison term, we could do this properly.

“ All right, ” I agreed. “ Slowly it is. ”

“ And you’ll tell me if you’re ever not comfortable, won’t you ? ” he said, looking almost uneasy.

“ Of line I will, ” I said.

He smiled. “ Good. ” And he picked up my wrist, gave it a bit of a rub with his pollex and brought it up to his mouth.

Eventually, realising it was very late and the globe was long over, we reluctantly made our way up to Gryffindor tugboat. There were still a few stragglers in the common way who looked at us with surprise as we climbed through the portrait muddle arm in arm, and Sirius didn’t let go of me until I was three measure up the stairway to the girls’dorms. I leaned over the banister to kiss him one more time before regretfully making my way up to bed.

I was the last one into the dormitory. Inside, Charlotte was lying on her bed crying angry and disconnected tears. It seemed that she and Remus had been getting along famously until he apparently got frigidity infantry. “ I thought it was actually happening, ” she said miserably. “ He kissed me, and it was marvelous, and then he stopped suddenly and had this horrifying apologetic face on his expression. And he said, ‘ I’m really dismal, but I can’t,’and ran away. ” She hiccoughed uncomfortably. “ What did I do wrong ? Am I that bad a kisser ? ”

“ I’m sure it’s not that, ” Lily said reassuringly, giving Queen City a hug. “ Maybe he doesn’t acknowledge what he wants. ”

“ It’s not fair, ” she said. “ You’ve got James, and you ” & ndash ; she looked at Mary & ndash ; “ have got Sebastian, and you ” & ndash ; she looked at me & ndash ; “ have apparently got Sirius. And the simply one I want is Remus, and he won’t have me. And he was giving me such meld signal all night, I don’t know what I’ve done. ”

“ If it’s any consolation, ” Martha piped up, “ I’ve got no one too. Davey and I have come to the conclusion we weren’t a particularly good match. ”

“ But we were a good compeer ! ” Queen City wailed. “ And he thought so, too, otherwise why would he give birth snogged me like that ? ”

None of us could explain it ; we were all as baffled as she was. I was sure Remus did fancy her, but that meant his behaviour was even more mystifying. Though, to be honest, I was having trouble concentrating on her problem, as my mind was somewhat preoccupied with what had happened to me that night.

Lily had noticed it. “ Oh, Laura, don’t experience guilty, ” she said, giving me a smile that seemed a little too understanding. “ No one here is seriously expecting you to be paying us the slightest bit of attention. ”

Martha was laughing. “ You know, I really didn’t see that one coming, ” she admitted. “ Mary and Sebastian, yes, but not you two. ” Virgin Mary gave us a bit of shamed grin from her bed.

“ You can’t have been paying care, then, ” Lily snorted, though she was still smiling. “ I’ve thought it for months. ”

“ A’leas’we nou be intimate wha’tha’snowball ficht thing this afternoon was aboot, ” Blessed Virgin grinned. “ Exac’ly wha’it looked lik & rsquo ;, after all. ”

“ Not that any of us actually saw you once you stopped dancing, ” Martha went on, looking at me. “ You just disappeared without a suggestion. We had to rely on Lily to find out what had happened. ”

I smiled. “ We wanted to get away from the crowds. ”

“ Goo’thinkin & rsquo ;, ” said Mary. “ McGonagall came o’er an’physically broke Seb an’I apar’. Said I wasna conducting myself i’a manner befittin’a member o’Gryffindor Hoose and woul’I min’bein’More discree’in future. ” She started giggling.

Charlotte laughed, and for the first time since I’d got inside the dorm her eyes were almost dry. “ For good rice beer, Mary, what exactly were you doing ? ”

“ Jus’snogging, ” Blessed Virgin said with a shrug. “ We micht hae bin gettin’a bi’enthusiastic, I’m nae really sure. I ferge’where we were up t’when she interrupted us. Anyway, we jus’wen’ootside and carried on oot there an’all. ”

I took Lily’s advice and opted out of the conversation, trying to relive everything that had happened since those first moment by the greenhouses. And those most agreeable thought process occupied my mind until I eventually drifted off to sleep.

****

I woke up the next morning wondering if it had all been a dream. Surely I couldn’t have been so lucky as to catch Sirius’eye ? I had to have imagined it, I thought, not really daring to call back otherwise in case I was wrong. Lily, however, soon cleared the matter up for me.

“ You go in first, ” she said with a smile as we lined up for the exhibitioner, waiting for Mary to finish. “ You want to get downstairs to Sirius, don’t you ? ”

I looked at her gratefully, not only for the offering but for the confirmation that it had in fact all been real. I hadn’t imagined being kissed like that, being held like that, feeling his breather on my boldness. It had actually happened. And I think I showered and dressed in record metre in my forwardness to get down to the common room.

Of class, soon enough I experienced the downside of going out with somebody like Sirius. The Great Hall erupted into rustling when we walked in for breakfast, helping hand in hand. I caught snippet of conversations as we went past & ndash ; “ Don’t screw what he sees in her ” … “ It’ll never survive, they’re too different ” … “ Who is she, do you make out ? ” … “ Do you think it was a making love potion ? ” It didn’t really storm me & ndash ; like I’d noted before, individual like him getting a new girlfriend was sheer clams and butter for the gossips of the school & ndash ; but it was something that would take some getting used to.

“ Ignore them, ” Sirius said, squeezing my hand as we sat down at the Gryffindor table. “ They’ll finish eventually. ”

“ I’m not really used to being the centre of attention, ” I pointed out, feeling distinctly uncomfortable as my hair's-breadth went promising blue before my heart. I pulled out my baton and changed it back to its original people of color, hoping Sirius hadn’t noticed.

“ Don’t worry about it, I’ll scare them off, ” he said, glaring over his shoulder joint at the girls I supposed were responsible the spell. “ Anyway, they’ll blank out all about it over the holidays. ”

He was undecomposed as his word, too & ndash ; he barely left my slope all daybreak, leaving me only when I had go into the dormitory to pack my travelling bag for the journey home plate for Christmastide. By the time we clambered onto the Hogwarts express together just before football team o’clock the whispers had gone, at least while I was in hearing.

Lily beamed at us as we found our seats. We were running a bit later than everyone else, having stopped for a quick snog before heading to the horseless carriages and, as is usually the case with new couples, it ended up going slightly tenacious than anticipated. Lily, King James and Remus had been about to head to the prefects’carriage for their official tariff, but they stopped for a enchantment as we arrived.

“ Saved you a tail, Padfoot, ” James said nonchalantly, ignoring the one-half 12 member of the fan club who were hovering outside the compartment and glowering at me. “ We figured you two would only need one between you. ” We opted to ignore his smirk, but he was pretty much spot on anyway.

putz laughed, but Remus didn’t. “ Give him a break, Prongs, he’s waited long enough. Just let him bask it for a day or so before you get stuck in. ”

tool stopped laughing. “ Just why did it adopt so long, anyway ? ” he asked. “ That’s not like you, Padfoot, you’re normally pretty quick off the pitch. ”

James River grinned as he pulled down the windowpane cover, blocking us from the corridor outside. “ He was terrified she’d say no, weren’t you, mate ? ”

Sirius was looking distinctly embarrassed, and I suspected he would throw preferred the conversation exact a different tour. I however was rather curious about it all, so decided to let it continue.

“ well, yeah, ” Sirius mumbled. “ I had no theme what you thought of me, ” he added, looking at me, “ so I had to try to win you over. ”

“ Win me over ? ” I was flabbergasted. “ No you didn’t. If anyone didn’t need winning over, that was me. ”

“ But I didn’t know that, ” he said defensively. “ Every fourth dimension I came near you, you made some excuse and ran away. I thought sometimes that I was your infrangible last choice. ”

It had never occurred to me that he might have seen it like that, and I suspected that fact was plainly displayed on my face from everyone’s reaction. Lily and James were laughing so punishing they had tears in their heart, Remus had a look on his boldness that plainly said ‘ I told you so & rsquo ;, and prick appeared to sustain just accidentally snorted his Cucurbita pepo succus.

Dog Star was looking confused. “ Well, am I damage ? ” he asked defiantly. “ What did I have to go on ? ”

Lily dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “ You could ingest asked someone, ” she said. “ I’ve known Laura fancied you since, ooh, last June at least. ”

“ You have ? ” I asked, distracted. Clearly I wasn’t as good at hiding matter as I’d thought.

“ Of course, ” she said confidently. “ You were trying so hard not to let it exhibit that it wasn’t hard to catch on. And I already suspected he liked you, I first thought that when you were still with Bertram, ” she went on. “ Anyway, if something didn’t happen last-place nighttime, James and I planned to shut up you two in a heather cupboard for a couple of minute, didn’t we ? ” She and James shared a smile. “ Though from the look on your look, Sirius, when she came down the steps last night, I thought it probably wouldn’t come to that. ”

Canicula groaned, his buttock rather pinker than usual. “ Are you saying I’ve just wasted the finis six calendar month ? ”

“ Pretty much, ” Lily agreed, smiling.

“ And you knew too ? ” he shot at James.

“ Well, first mate, Lily’s pretty perceptive, ” James said with a smile. “ She pointed out a few things that backed up her theory. ”

“ And you didn’t credit this, why ? ” Sirius asked, glaring at him.

“ We tried, ” said Remus. “ You didn’t listen. You were too convinced that she wasn’t interested. ”

“ It’s not Charles Frederick Worth worrying about, ” I said reassuringly. “ It’s happened now. ” And I leaned in and kissed him, trying to snub the wolf-whistles and hand clapping coming from our companions.

Before longsighted James, Lily and Remus disappeared in the direction of the prefects’carriage, leaving Sirius and me alone with Simon Peter. To our not bad fill-in he took one look at us, still only taking up one stern in the corner of the compartment, and made some futile excuse before also disappearing, almost tripping over Elvira who was still camped outside in the corridor. I felt a trivial bad for forcing him out but we did relish the theme of a bit of privacy, especially considering the blinds were still down. Of course of study it was over all too soon as our fellow did return eventually, claiming they had stayed out for as long as was humanly possible. Checking my sentinel, I was surprised to discover they actually meant it & ndash ; we’d had the compartment to ourselves for the best part of two hour, interrupted only by the trolley enchantress, but the clip had flown by so quickly it felt closer to twenty minutes.

Once the train arrived in Greater London & ndash ; much too soon as far as I was concerned & ndash ; I quickly scanned the crew from inside the carriage, looking for my parents. “ I don’t see them, ” I said, leaning over to try to see more of the platform, “ but that doesn’t necessarily signify they’re not here. ”

“ wellspring, why wouldn’t they be here ? ” Sirius asked.

“ Mum, ” I explained. “ She gets a bit overwhelmed with all the magic on the political platform so they usually wait for me on the former side of the barrier. However, if I assume that they’ve done that … ”

“ They’ll be just outside the compartment door when you get out, ” he finished for me.

“ Exactly, ” I said, still searching the gang for them. “ The day I walk off the train holding your helping hand is the day they break with tradition and get along in to find me. ”

“ What would they do ? ” he asked.

I shrugged. “ salutary doubtfulness. I haven’t actually gone against them like this before so I don’t really know. But I’m not sure that I want to find out. ”

Ever cautious, I stepped out onto Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters alone, Sirius a couple of masses behind me, and juggled my travelling bag and Cerridwyn’s cage as I searched fruitlessly for my parents. Eventually, I decided that they weren’t there after all.

“ The glide’s clear, ” I said, going over to where Sirius was waiting for me. “ They’re not here. ”

“ Excellent, ” he said quietly, putting his own suitcase down following to mine so he could wrap his arms around me. “ Then I assume we can do this ? ” And he leaned in and kissed me again.

“ This is going to be awful, ” I murmured in between candy kiss. “ three weeks apart. I don’t think I’ll be able to do it. ”

“ Why do you retrieve I’m making the near of this now ? ” he asked. “ I’m grabbing every finish second that I can with you. ”

Finally we broke apart, realising that there were only a couple of XII people still on the chopine so it would look very leery if we stayed much longer. Grabbing my suitcase and reaching into my robes for an owl goody for Cerridwyn, who was hooting dolefully at me, I turned to Sirius again.

“ volition you write to me ? ”

“ Of class, ” he said. “ And if I can wrangle a way to see you, I’ll do that too. ”

I got up on my tip toes and kissed him again. “ I can’t wait. ” And with that, I very reluctantly made my way through the roadblock.

Mum and Dad were looking anxiously at the wall between Platforms Nine and Ten as I emerged, dragging my grip and owl John Cage. “ Sorry I’m late ! ” I said brightly, racking my brain frantically for an self-justification.

“ What happened ? ” Dad asked. “ We were about to go in and look for you. Your mother’s on Call, we shouldn’t get hold of too long in sheath she needs to go in. ”

Phew, I thought, that was conclusion. undecomposed thing I’d get out when I did. “ Sorry, I didn’t realise, ” I said. “ My suitcase got stuck, ” I went on, putting it on the floor next to me so Dad could express it. “ We couldn’t get it down from the luggage rack, we think it must throw got hit with a whammy of some sort. I had to find one of the O. Henry to assist get it out. ”

“ And that took all that time ? ” Mum asked, her eyebrows hovering somewhere near her hairline. “ Mary came out ten transactions ago. ”

I shrugged, noticing out of the corner of my eye that Sirius had, after waiting for a suitable amount of time, also left the platform. “ They were getting everyone else’s matter out first, I couldn’t find one for ages, ” I invented. “ And then he needed to work out how to override the hex before he could get it down. It took a while. Sorry, I should birth got Mary to let you know. She does throw a new boyfriend, though, so she may experience forgotten anyway. ”

“ well, at least you made it through eventually, ” Dad said. “ So, are you fix ? Let’s go home. ”




Author’s musical note : Otherwise known as the “ about bloody time ” chapter. Of course it could have happened months earlier, but Laura was so convinced it was impossible that she missed all the signs.



40
I spent much of that Christmas break alone in my room, quietly bouncing off the wall. I couldn’t tell my parents what had happened, what with the no-distractions-during-NEWTs rule, and Bea wouldn’t have cared, so I had to resort to a combination of frequent varsity letter to Mary and lying back on my bed, daydreaming and losing myself in some very accordant storage of Sirius & ndash ; his arms around me, his breath on my skin and his natural language in my mouth. Though every now and then I just sat there in astonishment that I would experience memories like that at all, that it wasn’t just daydreams, that it had actually happened.

Sirius hadn’t been kidding & ndash ; he did write to me. Every day, and sometimes more than than once. Occasionally it was just a combat of parchment that said something like misfire you, but usually it was rather more substantial as we tried to process out a way we could see each other as quickly as potential, and I was very grateful that owl position didn’t cost by the subject matter because I was no lighter on the quill than he was. I hadn’t realised it was possible to pretermit individual that much, though I recognised it was probably due to the length of time we’d been together juxtaposed with the length of time we now had to expend apart more than any real number niggardliness. It was better when he was at the Potters’family in Somerset ( as I soon learned & ndash ; I’d had no theme it was so close ) as it was a great deal nearer, but when he was at home plate in London it could get hold of a day or two to get a response. A brace of times I even had to borrow Dad’s owl, Koukou, as Cerridwyn hadn’t returned in clip.

“ You do seem to be getting a lot of mail these holidays, ” Mum said one morning as Cerridwyn flew through the kitchen windowpane and landed on my berm, a bit of parchment with Sirius’handwriting on it tied neatly to her leg.

I shrugged, hoping that my cheeks were their usual semblance. “ Just comparing homework banker's bill, ” I invented. “ We’ve got a lot we need to get through before we go back to school, so we’re all helping each other out. ” I detached the varsity letter from Cerridwyn’s leg and let her fly back outside.

“ I remember what that was like, ” Bea said, surprising me by backing me up. “ Seventh yr’s a cow, really. What assignments do you have ? ”

right wing. Of course. She hadn’t been backing me up, she was digging me a fix. Now I had to mean about schoolwork, which I really didn’t want to do. After all, I had much better thing to occupy my thoughts with.

“ Transfiguration, ” I said quickly, trying frantically to retrieve what we had in fact been set. “ Animagus transformations & ndash ; theory only of trend, she doesn’t expect us to be able to do something like that by the meter we get back. ”

“ Of course, ” she said, leaning forward enthusiastically. “ That was really capture, and obviously she marks that pretty hard because she can do it herself so she knows what she’s on about. Don’t bury to direct effects on the human shape into accout, there’s usually some form of lingering residue from the transformation, and when we did it not everyone picked up on that so there were some incentive stain awarded. That’s worth remembering. ”

I was only vaguely paying attention, though I recognised that Bea was probably giving me some quite useful tips for that peculiar grant. I was, however, distracted by the letter I hadn’t yet opened, dying to read what he’d written this meter.

We were interrupted by the phone ringing, and Mum went to respond it. Within a minute she was looking terse and Bea and I looked at each other and groaned.

“ Right. okay, thanks, I’ll be there as soon as I can, ” Mum said into the receiver. She hung up and turned to us. “ That was work, ” she said redundantly & ndash ; we’d already worked that often out. “ They’ve found some masses & ndash ; Muggles & ndash ; who have turned up halfway to tub with no theme of who or where they are. Looks like they might own been cursed or something. I have to go go over it out. ”

“ Will Dad be there too ? ” Bea asked.

Mum shrugged. “ Depends on how bad the damage is, ” she said. “ We’ll probably need some Obliviators there, though & ndash ; hopefully your Ministry has been told already so we don’t have any delays. ” She was moving quickly around the kitchen as she spoke, grabbing her purse and keys and shoving them into her handbag. “ I’ll be back as soon as I can, ” she said over her articulatio humeri. “ Good luck with the homework, Laura ! ”

Well, that was a nice escape, I thought, clutching my letter of the alphabet tightly in my bridge player and picking up my cup of tea with the other. “ I’m going back upstairs, ” I told Bea. “ pauperization to get this homework done, you know ? ” And without waiting to hear if she responded to me or not, I hurried up to my room and closed the door so I could devour my alphabetic character.

Dear Laura

Well, I’ve worked it out. Working around what you’ve already said about kinsperson obligations, I can get to Bristol on the Friday before Christmas Day, so if you can think of an excuse ( Christmastime shopping, perhaps ? I’m sure you’ll think of something ) we can maybe meet up then ? You know the country better than I do so you can nominate a smudge, but somewhere out of the way would be dear, don’t you think ? Because I don’t think I can last another day without seeing you, or at least knowing I can see you soon. I need something to depend forward to that’s closer than the train stumble back to school.

Please pen back as soon as possible and severalise me if it might work out. December 23rd isn’t that far away so if I knew we could get together then, that’d be fantastical. And you can spill the beans me through the security department system you’ve got in berth so I can roll in the hay for sure that you’re safe.

Canicula

This last bit was unnervingly common in his missive. Dad, although a pure-blood, was seen as a blood traitor because of his piece of work, and Mum was a Muggle, so Sothis was concerned in typeface any of us became targeted by the Death Eaters. I had the feeling that he would come to Bristol in a secondment if I gave any touch of any form of fuss whatsoever, and while I was dying to see him again I didn’t want to gamble my parents’wrath, so I put a lot of effort into trying to convince him that our home base was safe and that I wasn’t doing anything that would put me in danger.

And so it was that two days before Christmas I told my parents I was off to do some finale mo Christmas shopping & ndash ; a front for a hugger-mugger day with my new young man. Oh how I loved calling him that : it made all the months of suffering worthwhile. It had taken a honorable half an hour to convince Mum that I would be safe enough if I kept to Muggle sphere & ndash ; the war hadn’t really hit Bristol yet, despite the Muggles half way to bathroom who had indeed needed their memories to be modified & ndash ; but fortunately in the end she agreed. Canicula and I arranged to meet at the urban center museum and art picture gallery, which was open but almost guaranteed to be deserted as most of the Muggle population was doing exactly what my parents thought I was doing.

He was already there when I arrived, leaning against the front of the building, looking amazing in a dragon-skin crown, glowering red jumper and denim. I’d come feeling almost an fake & ndash ; what if I turned up and he said it was all a misapprehension ? & ndash ; but when he saw me he came straight over to me, kissed me deeply and held me so tightly I thought my costa might snap. OK, I thought, it wasn’t a misunderstanding. I didn’t dream it. This is existent.

“ I missed you, ” he said between kisses. “ It’s far too long since I saw you. ”

“ I missed you too, ” I said, holding him just as blotto as he was holding me and savouring the preference he had left in my rima oris. Eventually we parted and he put his arm around my waist as we went upstairs to the gallery to find a nice out-of-the-way slur where we could catch up properly and without interruptions.

“ You know, you really are lovely, ” he said, standing back to get a full view of me. “ I can’t believe it took me five and a half years to see it. ”

“ Six and a half, ” I corrected him automatically.

“ What ? ”

“ We’ve been at schooltime for six and a half years, ” I explained.

He grinned. “ Ah, but I noticed after five and a half, ” he said smugly. “ It just took me forever to get up the guts to tell you. Oh, and that reminds me … ” He pulled a bundle out of his air pocket and pressing it into my hand. “ This is for you, ” he said quietly. “ Merry Christmas. ”

“ You didn’t have to do that, ” I said.

“ Yes I did, ” he said. “ I bought this long time ago, in the hope it might be appropriate to collapse it to you at some point. ”

I unwrapped the package, revealing a flat box about one by five inches. Opening it, I saw a atomic number 79 wristband, frail yet bold, boasting a ace Narcissus pseudonarcissus magical spell. distinctly goblin-made, it was one of the most stunning things I’d ever seen.

“ It’s beautiful ! ” I gasped, awestruck. “ Exactly what I would have chosen if you’d asked me to pick one. But it must have cost you a fortune ! ” I looked up at him, angry yet pleased he would spend so much on me.

He smiled, ignoring the cost jibe. “ I knew you’d like it. After I saw how a great deal you liked the cla & ndash ; ” He stopped, checking himself.

“ The what ? ” I asked. “ The clutch ? ” He nodded mutely. “ That was you ? ” I asked in electric shock, fingering the detail in question which was as always attached to my wearable.

Wordlessly he got out his scepter and, tracing the air, drew with fervidness the unusual symbol on the backbone of the clasp. The one I had assumed was a hobgoblin mark. I saw now it was his initials superimposed over each other & ndash ; SOB & ndash ; in an elegant script. “ You’re not wild with me ? ”

“ Of course not ! ” I said, giving him a hug and reaching up to buss him on the face. “ Why would I be angry with you ? I love it ! But how … why … ” I trailed off, not exactly sure what I was trying to ask.

“ I bought it for you for your birthday, ” he said, his limb back around me. “ I was in Hogsmeade and Clio and I had had a fight, so I went off to get things ready for the party. Bought some Firewhisky and a few character of butterbeer to be collected later, that variety of thing, so that was one LE thing to organise. And I was going to get you something pocket-size, you know, a token, since you were having a joint party with Moony and it would be primitive not to, but I didn’t know you that well so I dropped into that jeweller’s. thought I’d get some earrings or something, I wasn’t sure. ”

He paused, watching my face. “ And then I saw the hold and I just knew you would love it, and before I knew what I was doing I’d bought it and was having it graven. So that was that. Until on the way back to school I realised I’d just spent more than on you than I had on Moony, and way Thomas More than I’d spent on Clio for Valentines Day, and that it might not be appropriate to render it to you since I was with Clio & ndash ; or not, we’d just broken up & ndash ; and you were with Aubrey. And I couldn’t give on to it or take it back’cause it’d been engraved, and anyway I knew I wanted you to cause it. I couldn’t have said why, but I did. So I sent it anonymously. ”

I kissed him again. “ And I loved it ! ”

He smiled again, somewhat ruefully this sentence. “ You could accept fooled me. You didn’t wear it for week ; I thought I’d completely misjudged you and what you liked. And then we had the easter holidays and I didn’t see you for a fortnight, and suddenly I realised why it had felt so crucial to hold it to you, but you were still with Aubrey so I was jealous as Inferno. I thought if he’d given it to you, you would give birth worn it for sure, like you did with that terribly cloak. ”

“ Didn’t you know ? ” I asked, surprised. “ Because it was anonymous, we took it to McGonagall to get it checked for jinxes. I’d been identified as a target, apparently. It took geezerhood to get it back. ”

“ Is that all ? ” he asked. “ And here was me, imagining all form of things. I even thought Aubrey had told you not to wear it’cause he didn’t give it to you. ” He let go of me and started fastening the watch bracelet around my radiocarpal joint. “ Now this, I’ve had it sized down a bit, your wrists are so diminutive, ” he said. “ Hope I got it the right field size. ” He finished, and I flung my arm towards the terra firma in an effort to dislodge the watch bracelet, to see if it would drop down over my hand. It stayed put.

“ Perfect, ” I said, ineffective to barricade smile. “ But then again, so are you. ”

****

After a duet of hour we wandered back outside into the cold December air to happen somewhere for lunch. I wasn’t lament to pass too much prison term outdoors on the off prospect I was seen by someone I knew, so we found a nearby pub and grabbed a tabular array near the back of the room.

He smiled at me as we sat down. “ Now, what would you like to drink ? I hear there’s a micro-brewery around here somewhere … ”

I shook my head. “ I’m not 18 yet, think of ? ”

“ So ? ” He looked surprised. “ Why would that subject ? ”

“ Legal age for Muggles, ” I explained.

He just winked at me, smiling broadly. “ Laura, why do you think Confundus appeal were invented ? ” He stood up. “ I’ll be right back. ”

A instant or so later he returned, beaming at me and carrying two pints of laager and a couple of menu. “ This has taken far too prospicient to happen, ” he said, handing me a drink. “ You and me. We could have got had calendar month already. If only I’d realised ! ”

“ And if only I had too, ” I agreed, grabbing his handwriting and squeezing it. “ It never even occurred to me that I had a chance, though, not realistically. I mean, half the school was after you. What luck was there that you’d even look at me ? ”

He laughed as he sat down again. “ fountainhead it’s not like I didn’t have any challenger for you, either. ”

I was stunned. “ Competition ? For me ? ”

He smiled. “ You never believe citizenry when they tell you how lovely you are, do you ? Yes, of course of action there was contention. Carmichael, Dearborn, Whitby & ndash ; and that’s just who comes to mind now. Even Moony was threatening to ask you out, though I think that was more his way of pushing me along a bit. ” He paused. “ What is it with you and prefects, anyway ? ”

“ I have no musical theme, ” I said vaguely, struggling to shoot in what he was saying. “ You’re actually serious, aren’t you ? ”

He smiled mischievously. “ Of course I’m Sirius. ”

“ Ha ha ha. But you know what I mean. ”

“ I do, and that’s exactly my point, ” he said, more gravely this sentence. “ You need to bug out realising how incredible you are. I remember spilling my moxie once and telling you you were beautiful, and you thought I was humouring you. ”

I thought about when he might suffer said that and realised it must hold been that day at Hogsmeade, way back when I had just dumped Bertram. “ You weren’t ? ”

He shook his headspring in mock exasperation. “ Come on, Laura, do you really think I tell mass they’re beautiful at the pearl of a baton ? Of form I wasn’t humouring you. You are beautiful, and you’re smart, and you’re funny remark, and you’re & ndash ; well, you’re just about hone. You just need to believe it. ”

He really meant it. This was astonishing. I clearly wasn’t as ordinary as I had always believed. “ Oh Merlin, ” I said, shaking my nous at my own demeanor. “ I spent all of last terminal figure obsessing over you, absolutely convinced it could never fall out. I was even making myself pathetic because of it. ”

“ And all that meter I was crazy about you, ” he admitted. “ But you never gave me any clues, you didn’t tease, you barely treated me any differently to, say, Saint James the Apostle. I had no idea what you thought of me. ” He shook his psyche in defeat. “ I spent month trying to weasel my way closer to you but each time I got near enough to say anything you got all tense and turned away. Half the time you looked so scared that I thought you must have known and were trying to put me off. ”

I smiled wryly and took a sip of my laager. “ No, that was because I didn’t corporate trust myself around you. I was petrified I’d do something that could end up humiliating me. Quite frankly, Sirius, I thought that if you found out how a lot I liked you you’d think I was just like Elvira. ” I shuddered involuntarily & ndash ; the idea that he might have not only rejected me but started avoiding me altogether had been enough to stop any opinion I might have had in letting him know.

He looked surprised. “ But I could never conceive you were like her. The two of you have cypher in vernacular. Well, species, perhaps, but thinking about it I’m not even convinced of that. ”

“ I don’t know, ” I said dryly. “ I thought we had a lot in common. We were both borderline obsessed with you. Only conflict was that I didn’t want anyone to know. I mean, if you knew, and you didn’t like me, I would take been mortified, and you most probably would possess stopped talking to me. And you can scream me a coward if you like but I couldn’t handle that, I needed to have you around. ”

He laughed. “ Did you really think that ? But that’s absurd. Assuming there could be a man where I didn’t realise how awful you are, I might have been a bit uncomfortable, but I would never have stopped talking to you. ” He kissed my manus gently, smiling at my incredulous look. “ Think about it, Laura, how many of them have I ever been Quaker with ? ”

I thought about it. “ None ? ”

“ Exactly. ” He smiled at me. “ There’s a big remainder between mortal who actually knows you, and soul who has this idealised figure of you that you couldn’t live up to even if you wanted to. ”

“ That makes mother wit, ” I admitted, realising I was grinning from ear to ear. Actually, it was rather like the problem I’d had with Bertram. “ And to be true, before I really knew you I wasn’t interested in the slightest. ”

“ Which is all right by me, ” he said. “ It means you’re more interested in what’s on the inside. proofread that you’re cipher like Vablatsky. ”

I looked at him. “ So what made you finally do something ? ”

He paused as if mentation. “ I couldn’t stand not knowing, ” he said eventually. “ I couldn’t work out what you thought of me. Everything I heard and saw pushed me in different focusing as to how you might have felt. Like I said on the string, sometimes I thought I was your absolute conclusion choice, and you telling me that day with the giggler that you didn’t care who I snogged didn’t help. ”

I blushed. “ It was what I thought you wanted me to say. And I was just in electrical shock, it was like walking in on my worst nightmare. ”

He shook his chief. “ fountainhead, if you had to see that, what I wanted was for you to get jealous. Visibly, that is, not some hidden affair that I didn’t know about. And, from what I could see, you didn’t. ”

I smiled wryly. “ Didn’t you notice I didn’t go down to dinner that dark ? That was because I was crying into my pillow. I felt like the public had ended. ”

“ Was that what it was ? ” he asked, looking surprised. “ Lily just said you weren’t well, so I guess I took it at facial expression economic value, and it explained why you’d looked a bit blench that afternoon. And then I wanted to explain everything to you the side by side day but you weren’t at breakfast either. ”

I laughed. “ That was when I fell down the stairs, wasn’t it ? Alecto Carrow actually hit me with a tripper Jinx, what were the luck ? And then Remus had to aid me to the infirmary wing. I was a right mess. ”

“ I was worried as hell about you that day, ” he admitted. “ Couldn’t concentrate during transfiguration at all, ended up getting a detention from McGonagall because I wasn’t paying attention. And then I borrowed Prongs’Cloak and snuck into the hospital wing to see you during break of serve, but you were asleep so I didn’t know if you were still hurt or not. I was so relieved when you showed up at lunch time. ”

I shook my forefront a bit. “ And you never realised how upset I was about that girl ? good, I must be amend at hiding things than I thought. ”

He nodded. “ You certainly are. I had no idea. I just knew that I had to sustain trying or I’d never know. But every prison term I did try, something would find to interrupt or I’d just lose my nerve. ” He paused again, looking at me. “ But then the way you looked that night, any modicum of self-control I might birth had just disappeared. So I thought I’d just do it before I chickened out again. ” He grinned. “ If it didn’t work, you would have got a prospicient missive of apology by the time you got home from the train. ”

I smiled again. “ right. I’ll just say that I’m glad you took the chance. ” Then something else occurred to me and I changed the subject. “ By the way, what happened with Charlotte and Remus ? Did he get cold human foot or what ? ”

He looked a little uncomfortable. “ Yeah, kind of, ” he admitted. “ That’s not really for me to say, though, he hasn’t said I’m allowed to recount anyone. Not even you. ”

“ Oh, right, ” I said. “ I’m guessing that would be one of those rules you guys have, then, wouldn’t it. ”

He looked storm. “ You know about those ? ”

I smiled. “ Only that they exist. I don’t really get what they are, but it’s clear that you’ve got, I don’t know, a code of conduct or something that you all stick to. ”

“ Well, that’s one way of looking at it, ” he said. “ Yes, you’re mighty. In this case, answering that question in any detail would be breaking a self-assurance. And I can’t do that. ”

“ Of course of action not, ” I agreed. “ Well, then, I won’t ask you any more. ”

He looked please. “ Now, ” he said, changing the guinea pig, “ blab me through the defences you’ve got set up at home … ”

After we had eaten and I had finally convinced him that my founding father’s care for our sign of the zodiac and crime syndicate were good enough, we found a quiet corner nearby and picked up where we had left off earlier. I cast an Impervius magical spell on us to screen us from the nose candy that had started falling, and standing there in his arms I felt absolutely blissful. There could not have been a more complete day.

Eventually we broke apart, uncomfortably aware of the darkening sky. “ I should be getting back, ” I said, unable to wrench myself away from him. “ Can we do this again ? ”

He started suddenly. “ I almost forgot, ” he said, pulling an gasbag out of his jeans air hole. “ This is for you. Party at Prongs’place, for New years. say your phratry the whole year’s been invited, kind of a terminal bang before schooling finishes. That is, they haven’t, but your sept don’t need to have sex that. Come early and stay as long as you can. ”

I took the envelope, smiling broadly. The ceramicist’New Years party happened annually and half the school day coveted an invitation, probably because it meant bringing in the new year with the two most popular boys in school, but obviously I had never been included before. I knew Lily had been invited every twelvemonth since fourth year, but I was pretty sure as shooting this would be the first time she would have. It was stark, a superb apology to see him again before we went back to school.

“ And don’t leave these, ” Dog Star said, waving his wand and conjuring up some shopping bags. “ You are supposed to have been doing your Dec 25 shopping today, after all. ” Struck by his tending to detail, I took the handbag.

“ commodity thinking. ” It was just as well I’d already done all my shopping, as the bags would disappear after a few hour like all complot items, but they would definitely do as book binding for when I arrived home. I looked at him and, dropping the bags, put my blazon around his waist underneath his jacket crown. “ I don’t want you to go, ” I said, sounding unnervingly like a small small fry.

“ I don’t want to go either, ” he said gently, returning the gesture and resting his frontal bone on mine, “ but I don’t think we have a option. Not unless you want pop dearest to find out about us. And I’d see you safely home, but … ” His voice trailed off, but I knew what he meant. Even showing up on my street was risky if we didn’t want to get caught.

“ I know. ” I reluctantly loosened my grip but put my hand to his grimace, where the beginnings of a five o’clock shadow were starting to appear around his cheek and jawline. He leaned in and kissed me, a mollify yet purposeful osculation that lasted somewhere between a few second base and half an hour, I really couldn’t say.

“ See you next hebdomad, then, ” he said once we had finished. “ hope you’ll come. ”

“ I promise, ” I said happily. “ Dragons couldn’t keep me away. ”

He smiled and Disapparated, leaving me standing in the Baron Snow of Leicester with a wad of ‘ shopping’. Smiling to myself, I followed his representative, appearing in our back up garden a second later lade with shopping traveling bag.






generator’s note : Clich & eacute ; alert ! Yes, I admit it, I have succumbed to another clich & eacute ; for fics of this era, which is to put a big party on at the potter’shoes during the Christmas/New Year period. And my exculpation ? Well, it fit my story, and we don’t have anything from JKR that says it didn’t fall out …



N & aelig ; st er & thorn ; a & eth ; kafli 41.