Chapter Four
September the First, Nineteen Hundred Seventy-Five
"I should have guessed you'd be Prefect, Lils" Davie said, staring admiringly at the shiny badge that Lily held towards her when they settled down onto the train. "Even though," Davie admitted sheepishly, "I did sort of want the badge for myself. I knew I'd never get it though."
Lily simply laughed and made no comment - she did not at all like that her best friend felt overshadowed. Lily Evans most surely wasn't trying. She did her best to make things as normal as possible, chatting amiably about their summer as they always would.
"D'you get a letter from Slughorn too?" Davie asked brightly, pulling out a piece of paper from her pocket and holding it out to Lily. "The - the Slug Club - have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous?"
"Well, I suppose it's sort of an honor," Lily laughed sheepishly, pulling out her own letter and glancing at it skeptically as well - she had always been one of Horace Slughorn's favorite students for her natural gift at potion making, and Davie had caught his eye as well for her sheer resilience and good eye for identifying errors. "At least it's something."
"Yeah," Davie laughed. "Yeah, I suppose you're right."
It would turn out that Davie's summer was not uneventful - she had blossomed a bit over the summer, just enough so that she didn't look like a stick bug the way she had always complained - however, the attention she acquired walking down the train did nothing to help her either. In fact, it made her so uneasy that she put her robes on early to cover herself up at least partially, even though they were still hours away from arriving at school.
"OWLs this year," Davie pointed out with a small sigh, referring to the Ordinary Wizarding Level Exams that were taken by Hogwarts students in their fifth year - she already had her book open on her lap, glancing through the materials; she, unlike Lily, was not naturally gifted in most of their classes and attained such excellent marks because of deep concentration and relentless studying. "This is going to be terrible, I just know it - I don't know how I'm going to take all of this pressure -"
THUNK!
Davie was interrupted by the door swinging open on its hinges, the inside handle hitting the side wall of the compartment loudly. The Marauders entered, making a ruckus as usual. "Prefect, coming through!" Sirius barked - though he was quickly distracted by a certain dark-haired girl in the compartment who certainly appeared to have grown up a bit since June.
"You?" Davie asked in a scandalized voice, crossing her arms over herself and glaring at Sirius when she noticed the immediate direction of his gaze. "They made you a prefect?"
"Merlin, no," James laughed. "No one in their right mind would make Sirius a prefect, that's ridiculous. Remus!" he clapped his friend heartily on the shoulder. "It's just brilliant, isn't it? One of the Marauders, a prefect. We'll never get in trouble again -"
"Not so fast!" Lily said shrilly, pointing her finger in James' face angrily, moving so quickly that, Quidditch reflexes an all, he jumped a bit out of the way. "You think I'm going to let you get away with a single thing from here on out, you've got -"
"I'm surprised!" Davie piped in, wanting very much to avoid a confrontation between Lily and James at the moment; Lily had spent a great deal of her letters over the summer reminiscing all of the reasons she was angry with James Potter, and Davie had a feeling that the emotion behind it was more than just annoyance, but she certainly had no desire to test her ideas at the moment. "You know, I thought James would get prefect - he does have the highest marks out of all the Gryffindor boys -"
"Being prefect," Lily said haughtily, eyeing James with utter distaste, "is more than just marks. They overlooked him on purpose because, well - because he's just not good enough."
This, finally, the boys would take as a signal to leave. Now, even Davie seemed slightly surprised at her best friend. She had always had her disagreements with James Potter, but never had she been the sort to get so frustrated over simple things the boys did.
"Don't you think that was a bit harsh?" Davie asked once the boys had left, tiptoeing a bit as she brought up the subject. "They haven't really done anything yet."
"Oh, Davie, don't stand up for them," Lily said, leaning back into a seat in the compartment. "You'd have done the same thing if it was Sirius, wouldn't you? You feel the exact same way about him as I do about James."
Davie rolled her eyes slightly and didn't reply.
They arrived at the school, the train ride a bit more tense than usual this year, and sat through the Sorting Ceremony, hardly exchanging a word. Davie went even so far as to sitting across from Lily rather than next to her as she had through all the previous years.
The next morning, however, Lily and Davie were speaking again - grudges between them rarely lasted long. They walked together as always down the hallways to their first class - Double Potions with the Slytherins. This time, however, Davie noticed that thanks to the prefect badge glittering on Lily's robes, the crowds parted for them with much more ease.
It did not evade Sirius' notice that Davie had gone the entire day without making a single snide comment towards him - and after the previous day, it gave him the slight inkling that she might have changed her mind about the Marauders, himself in particular. When they sat down in Potions, however, he tried taking a seat closer than usual Davie, to which she responded by gesturing to Lily, and the pair moved to a seat on the other side of the classroom.
After a short lecture from Professor Slughorn about his expectations for OWL preparation, the fifth years were set straight to work on a boil-removing Potion. Lily, as always was well-concentrated and farther ahead than everyone else. Another perfect score, Davie suspected. Meanwhile, Sirius noticed Snape getting up to go retrieve more ingredients from the supply cupboard. Drawing his wand slowly and making sure to avoid being noticed, he muttered a couple of spells so that a cluster of pinprick-sized holes appeared at the bottom of the cauldron. By the time Snape returned to his work station, more than three-fourths of the potion had dribbled out, now pooled and stinking on the floor.
Snape muttered a string of curses under his breath - there would be time still to prepare another potion, of course, but it hardly seemed worth the effort - his mark on the Potion would suffer little if at all in the long run, but his pride would not be so easy to repair.
"It was him," Snape snarled, pointing a finger toward Sirius Black immediately. "It was -"
"It was just an accident," Davie spoke up immediately, garnering surprise from nearly everyone in the room, especially Sirius Black. "Look - it's just seeped out the bottom. He might have added too much bob tuber pus, to early on." In any case, there was no proof that Sirius had done anything, and that, along with the endorsement from the best friend of his favorite student, was enough to appease Horace Slughorn.
After class, as everyone was leaving, Davie was easily the first out of the room, but Sirius rushed ahead of his friends after her.
"So, what was that about?" he asked smoothly, putting on a smile as he cut his way in front of Davie, effectively blocking her path; he was still a good deal taller than her, and so, standing in her way was not hard at all. "I don't suppose I'm starting to grow on you, am I?
"Oh, please!" Davie said with a shrill laugh. "I just don't want Gryffindor losing points this early in the term because of your stupidity, is that clear?" she snapped, rolling her eyes and walking away. Sirius immediately wondered why he had even thought to ask her such a stupid question. Surely he hadn't expected her to say anything else?
But admittedly, Sirius thought, Davie was quite a bit better-looking than she had been when he'd first noticed her - not in the way the pretty, leggy, blonde Hufflepuffs were. Merlin, no, he thought. He was quite familiar with the Hufflepuff girls, and Davie was certainly not much like them at all. Davie was not even pretty in the way Lily was.
Davie was pretty in a way you could very easily overlook, in a way that Sirius honestly had been overlooking for years, concentrating on the fact that she was a bit too thin, and her eyes were a bit too big, her teeth a bit crooked… yet somehow he grudgingly admitted in his head that perhaps, Moony had not been too far off the mark when he accused him of fancying her. She was still a self-righteous nuisance - but at least she was a pleasant-looking, self-righteous nuisance.
"Where are you going off to?" Sirius called out before he had actually thought through what he was saying; he simply wanted to get her attention before she walked away. Davie turned around with a puzzled look on her face. "Going to go and find old Snivelly, make sure he finished his potion alright -"
"Shove it, Sirius," Davie huffed. "How desperate do you think I am?"
For some reason, Sirius took a bit of pleasure in this answer, and was quite distracted for the remainder of the day. In Herbology, he ended up dropping entire pot of soil all over a batch of baby Mandrakes. In Transfiguration, he attempted to change a baby duck into a tennis ball to only limited avail - it began flying around with its tiny stubby wings, bouncing off of walls and colliding intermittently with other students' heads. Remus and James were quite relieved when they managed to finally arrive back with him in the Gryffindor common room without breaking anything.
However, the instant they arrived and spotted Davie in the common room, Sirius tugged Remus aside from the others and made it clear what had been distracting him all day.
"Moony, ah-" he said, scratching the back of his neck and lowering his voice. "Listen, could you do me a favor?" his expression was stoic. "I just need you to take Davie aside for a bit and ask her what she thinks of me."
"You mean if she fancies you," Remus said with a knowing smile.
"What's this, Padfoot?" James said, striding over with an amused laugh, draping his arm lazily over his best friend's shoulder and shaking his head, mussing up his hair. A couple of second year girls nearby gave audible giggles, and James gave them a grin before turning back to his friends. "No stomach to tell Davie you fancy her face to face?"
"Shove off, him, Prongs," Remus blurted, trying hard to hide his amusement.
"I didn't say I fancied her, I'm only wondering. " Sirius said indignantly. "Besides, I don't see you professing your undying love for Lily yet -"
"Timing, my friend. Timing," James laughed, closing one eye and pointing lazily at Lily as though taking aim at her. "She'll warm up to me."
"Right," Remus laughed, socking him in the shoulder before walking off to Davie's table - Sirius turned his back so that they wouldn't see how intently he was focused on eavesdropping. "'Lo, Davie."
"'Lo, Remus," Davie said amiably, glancing up only briefly from her essay - Lily was, at the moment, doing rounds with the Ravenclaw prefect, leaving Davie to work alone - something to which she was sorely unaccustomed but also something she would need to do more often now, since Lily was not always going to be around. "D'you want to sit?"
"Sure," Remus said, taking a seat next to Davie as she continued with her essay.
"Sirius let you slip away for a quick chat with me?" she laughed, setting her quill down. "He's so bent on antagonizing me, I'm surprised he lets you be my friend."
"Funny you should mention him," Remus grinned. "Just out of curiosity - what do you think of him?"
"Sirius?" Davie asked incredulously. Finding the question abrupt and terribly strange; since when was Remus anything more than the neutral party, the liaison between the girls and the Marauders? "What do I think of Sirius Black? Is this some kind of joke?"
"No, I'm being quite frank," Remus said, albeit chuckling slightly.
Davie paused briefly, drumming her fingers lightly on the table; Sirius strained his ears to listen from his seat, in case perhaps she had started whispering. "I don't know," Davie shrugged nonchalantly. "I suppose he's alright."
"Alright," Remus echoed with a nod - the volume of his voice made Davie feel slightly suspicious. "Well, in what way?" By now, even James was straining to listen to the conversation - if there was a chance that Davie could warm up to Sirius, then Lily Evans may not be too far behind. "Do you think he's good-looking?"
"Well, I don't think any less of him than any other girl in our year does, as far as his appearance, I suppose," she said primly, a fairly accurate impression of Lily's usual tone in response to these sorts of questions.
"So, do you fancy him?"
"Don't think so," Davie laughed, shaking her head. Sirius grimaced after making a reflexive movement that entailed his kneecap hitting the bottom of the table at which he was seated. "Honestly, Remus, did you think I would?" she asked.
"Well, with all that couple-like bickering -"
"Remus."
"Not even a chance?"
"Well, no, not if he can't even speak to me himself," Davie said with a pointed glance towards Sirius, indicating that she had been aware that Remus had been sent as a messenger since the beginning of the conversation. "I'm going to keep on working on my essay upstairs. G'night."
However, when Davie arrived in her dormitory room with her things slung over her shoulder, she was immediately followed by a curly-haired, pointy-faced girl named Mary Macdonald, who occupied the bed across from Davie's, though she spent quite a bit of time sneaking around at night with boys; Davie never bothered asking what she was doing. There was no point.
"Did I just hear what I thought I heard?" she simpered, sitting at the edge of Davie's bed. "You don't like Sirius Black? Not even a bit?"
"Nope," Davie replied airily. "Not one bit?"
"So you wouldn't mind if -"
"He's all yours, if he'll have you," Davie laughed, tossing her pillow at her roommate. "And I don't doubt that he would."
"Do you really think so?" Mary said hopefully, her face lighting up joyously at the idea that she might have stood a chance with Sirius Black. Davie rolled her eyes at the girl, reaching over and shutting off the light.
For nearly a month after the incident, Sirius could not even properly look at Davie long enough to speak with her, let alone antagonize her in his usual fashion but as it was, he couldn't long resist James' egging on in trying to get the attention of Lily Evans and Davina Maddux.
Autumn turned to winter, and Christmas holidays rolled around inevitably. Students flocked home in droves, leaving only a few behind - Peter and Remus were among those who left, leaving Sirius and James alone in the boys dormitories. Lily and Davie were pleased to have the girls' dormitories to themselves as well.
"It's so quiet!" Davie laughed luxuriously, sprawling out on one of the sofas in the common room and putting her legs up, relishing in the comfortable spot in front of the fire. "All that's left are three seventh years and two firsties -"
"D'you forget about us?" James laughed jovially as he came down the stairs. Lily rolled her eyes and had half the mind to simply go back to the dormitory before Davie tugged her back down. "You're sitting in Sirius' spot on the couch -"
"I don't see his name on it anywhere," Lily said, pursing her lips and glaring at James.
"You don't need to be so unpleasant," Sirius said, perching himself on the back of the sofa in question. "To think we were going to invite you to come to Hogsmeade with us."
"Right now?" Lily asked in disbelief. "You must be mad. We wouldn't be caught dead going with the pair of you - I'm a prefect -"
"So is Remus," James pointed out with an impish grin. "Doesn't stop him from having fun with us. How about you, Davie?"
And for the first time, Lily looked at Davie, and she didn't immediately mirror he best friend's reply. In fact, Davie seemed to have second thoughts about agreeing with her best friend at all. After all, Davie thought to herself, there wasn't a great deal else to do in the common room over the holidays.
"Lily," she said hesitantly. "What if - you know, just one -"
"Fine!" Lily said. "If you want to hang around that sort, then it's fine by me but I'm not going to vouch for you if you get caught."
"Oy, mate," James said, elbowing Sirius in the side. "What say you take Davie to Honeydukes and I'll see if I can change Miss Evans' mind about joining us."
"Fine by me," Sirius shrugged, then glanced at Davie and nodded toward the portrait hole. Davie cast one more apologetic glance toward Lily before hurrying towards the portrait hole behind him.
"How do you know about all of this stuff?" Davie asked Sirius as he rather surprisingly help her climb into the hole in the back of the humped witch statue, being quite chivalrous.
"The boys and I have done our share of exploring - best stay close. You, ah- you haven't been down here before." Sirius said proudly, lighting his wand and walking ahead of Davie down the cold stone hallway revealed when they climbed into the statue. At the end of the hallway, Sirius pushed upward on what looked like solid ceiling; a large wooden trapdoor opened. Sirius climbed out first, then held out his hand to pull Davie up out of the passageway. When they emerged, Davie's grin was, as far as Sirius was concerned, a sight to behold, considering that this was perhaps the first time he had ever been the cause of it.
Her expression turned to one of particular glee when she came across an open barrel of fudge candies wrapped in colorful foil. "Oh, this is heavenly," she laughed, picking up a handful and unwrapping them all together. "This is better even than anything my secret admirer -"
She was interrupted by Sirius clearing his throat, and it only took her a brief moment to connect the dots. She put down the candy in her hands, paling in realization as she turned towards Sirius.
"Blimey, Sirius. It's been you all along?" Davie asked with a confused laugh. "But - but why? Is this supposed to be some sort of elaborate joke? You've been going on with it for more than a year, what's the point? Pretend you want to be nice, pretend to fancy me, or -"
"I wasn't pretending!" Sirius snapped suddenly, and Davie flinched - she was never quite aware that Sirius Black had a bit of a temper at all, because he was always so easygoing. Indeed, she had never seen him when he wasn't joking.
"Well," she said, clearing her throat and pacing back and forth a bit as she tried to regain her bearings. "I supposed this ought to explain why you've been such a git to me all these years," she pointed out in a weak attempt at sarcasm. "And all this bickering -"
"Would you stop trying to make sense of everything? This is like trying to have a conversation with a textbook," Sirius snapped irritably. "Davie - ah. Let's be honest, here. You've never fancied me? Never?"
"Well -"
"Well?"
"Are you going to let me finish?" Davie snapped, turning slightly red in exasperation. This, however, was more than familiar to Sirius. "I - I've fancied you a little for a while now - just a little!" Her gazed shifted quickly. "I haven't even told Lily that because, well - let's face it, you and I don't exactly get along."
"Well," Sirius said, letting out a breath and a small, genuine smile - not a smirk, but a smile. "Would you like to give me a chance to prove myself? I'm a very nice person, I think. Or, I can be."
"And humble. So very humble," Davie laughed, tilting her head downward to rub the back of her neck in slight discomfort. Only when she looked back up did she realize how close Sirius was now standing to her. When he reached out and placed his hands on her shoulders, she jumped slightly in surprise. Slightly dismayed at having apparently misread her openness, Sirius started pulling away.
"Wait!" Davie yelled, reaching out and cupping his face gently with one hand. They stood like this for longer than they were aware - Davie, for one, was unsure of what to do. She was never really unsure of how to act with Romnic Digby when they had dated - she had been his girlfriend, and she wasn't socially awkward to the point of not knowing that it was alright to kiss her boyfriend. But what was Sirius? Certainly not her boyfriend. Certainly not. Absolutely not. Was this alright? And what would Lily think of her if -
Surprisingly, in order to quiet her doubts more than anything, Davie was the one who made the first move, lifting herself onto tiptoes and pressing her lips gently to his. Sirius smiled slightly against her lips as he placed his hands on her waist. She certainly wasn't as experienced at kissing as his Hufflepuff admirers either, but he frankly did not mind in the slightest.
"Davina Maddux," he chuckled breathlessly, smiling broadly when she pulled away from him, still allowing him to keep his hands lightly on her waist. "I think I could sing -"
"I wish you wouldn't," Davie interrupted quickly, her lips tight against her teeth as she tried not to smile too widely. But for the moment, it was briefly alright what she was doing - it was alright that she was out at night, even if she was a prefect's best friend. It was alright that she was perhaps, maybe even just slightly, enjoying the company of Sirius Black.
A/N's
I don't know if anyone had noticed, but I've edited the titled of the story to include a subtitle, which is a reference to a poem by William Wordsworth that is going to come up later on in the story - quite a bit later, but if anyone is familiar with the poem, it might prepare you for the way the story is going to end. I'm going to bit the bullet and commit to the ending I had already written.
To angharad xoxo, thank you for the review! I actually got super excited to have another review, it was a bit dorky of me, but anyway! I noticed on your profile, you're a Sirius fan! Perfecto, tee-hee! I also dislike bad spelling, but I do have typos here and there because I'm writing this without a beta-reader, so hopefully you don't shoot me for the occasional spelling error! I started looking at your story, "Remembering" and I like how you replaced Peter with Frank Longbottom - I don't think there are many Wormtail fans out there anyway. I actually never knew what to do with him, but I need him for later on in the story, so when Peter comes up in my story, he's mostly just nodding lamely and following the other boys around. Very little speaking. But I will most definitely try to read more of your stuff!
Padfoot'sPixie, so glad you liked it! Please, please keep following this story! As you can probably tell from where the story is focused, I'm a big Sirius fan too. So you'll be seeing plenty of him!
Also thank you to Helbell for subscribing to the story!
I think you can all tell by now that I get a little overexcited when I have readers that show themselves - I used to be a journalist and wrote lots of editorials and always anxiously awaited any responses I would get. But anyway - Sirius and Davie have now kissed! But that doesn't mean things get easy from here on out.
A bit of a spoiler for next chapter - we're going to have Snape's Worst Memory to some extent, though I'm still thinking whether or not to include the actual incident. Still in the editing phases, so expect it in a matter of days. Then the chapter after that, things begin to lose their fluffiness a bit. Thank you, thank you for keeping up with this story, everyone!
Cheers!
