"Come on Sirius! Let me go!" Dorcas tried to pull away her arm from him but he had a firm grip. He could be really stubborn, unluckily for her, and as one of the beaters in Gryffindors quidditch team he wouldn't let her go so easily.

"You promised last week, only an hour. We eat, mingle and then leave. You don't even have to talk with him. Just come with me and we're out before you'll know it." Sirius looked beseechingly at her.

"I don't get it, you hate those things more than me."

"This is different. More people than usual will come, famous people. He knows everyone, for Merlin's sake! Lots of contacts and possibilities."

"Why can't you ask someone else? You can probably charm some girl to go with you." That wouldn't be too hard. He had a horde of them circling around him like vultures, hoping he would notice them, Dorcas thought.

"Yeah sure, because I want to be associated with someone who's IQ is lower than a gnomes and about as interesting as Mr Binns' lessons." He snorted and Dorcas laughed, it was a good description of the horde of girls that followed him.

"And the other marauders? They will be there anyway, right?"

"James thinks he's going with Lily Evans, as usual. Remus said he didn't feel so good and Peter is spending the holiyday at home. I wouldn't go with Peter anyway because, well he's Peter. You are really the only one who wouldn't humiliate me Cassy."

"But go alone then, and let me go back to my dorm."

"You can't abandon me Cassy. You promised! Please, please, please…" He threw himself around her legs and held on like his life depended on it. "… please, please…"

A hufflepuff in their year walked by and stared at them like if they had grown an extra head each. Dorcas smile embarrassed and tried to make Sirius lose his grip.

"That's enough now Sirius, come on." She hissed. "People stare!"

"… please, please, please…"

"Okay, you get as you want. Stop being such a child."

-o-o-o-o-

They stepped into Slughorns Christmas party half an hour later. Sirius in black dress robe with red details and Dorcas in matching red dress and a black cardigan.

The room was already crowded. Most of them where Slughorns favorite students, both old and new ones, but there were also other influential people who had become targets of his flattery.

Sirius and Dorcas did as they had planned to. They ate and talked with some interesting people, but just when they were about to go…

"Sirius my boy! Why didn't you come and greet me first thing you?" Slughorn, a very fat man, come up to them with his arms open and witha big smile. He had a large walrus moustache but he had started to lose his blonde hair.

"Professor…" Sirius looked beseechingly at Cassy for the second time that evening when she tried to run away from Sirius and the catastrophe she knew would come.

She loathed how the professor favored some students (there among Sirius, James Potter, Lily Evans and even Remus Lupin when he felt generous). He worshiped them like they were gods. Sure, the students he chose were truly brilliant and deserved to shine but he barely saw the other, like Dorcas. She always felt a bit low when she had talked with Slughorn.

"Oh, please say Horace. It's Christmas and we should have a pleasant time."

"Well, it was nice to see you sir, but we actually have to…" Sirius didn't like the fawning any more than Dorcas. As the troublemaker he was; he considered it was better to be unseen by the Hogwarts staff.

"I spoke with Minerva the other day" the walrus interrupted. "And I'm glad we came to talk about you because I had no idea you wanted to become an auror. Excellent career chose my boy, excellent!"

"Um, thanks."

"Hard to become of course, with long trials but it will pay off you'll see. If someone can make it it's you, I can bet my wandhand on it. Then I'll see you in my class next year too, how splendid! Aurors are highly ranked, only a few can be valued higher, but that is…"

"Dorcas want to work at the department of Mysteries" Sirius said in a desperate attempt to flee from Slughorn's focus. He laid an arm around Cassy incase the professor had forgotten who she was. Horace turned to her for the first time that evening and blinked a few times to see if she was real.

Dorcas on the other hand stared angrily at Sirius, who avoided her eyes.

"I see," Slughorn said slowly. "That is a, um, fascinating chose. Not so much information about it. How did you decid that was your life mission?" he asked testing.

"My dad was an Unspeakable." She answered shortly. All she wanted to do was take a last sip of her butterbeer and get out from the party, but apparently she had become interesting enough to be interrogated and wouldn't be going anywhere.

"'Was' you said?"

"He died last year, on the job." Can you please let me leave now? She added in her head.

"I am very sorry for your loss. Everything about those projects is so secret but I understand it can be dangerous. I knew a woman who was an unspeakable; she started here at Hogwarts only a couple of years after I started to work here. She was very talented whit arithmancy, if I remember correctly. Do you take arithmancy?"

"Yes, but the class is too advanced for me so I probably won't take it on NEWT-level."

"Sadly she did disappear for several decades." He babbled like he hadn't heard her unpleasant answer. "Can I ask which house you're in?"

"Ravenclaw, sir."

"Then you have to be clever. Very clever, indeed."

Sirius and Dorcas rolled their eyes, they both knew what the conversation would lead to. As a collector did Slughorn wanted contacts all over the Wizarding world. But it was hard to get a peek into the department of Mysteries, and apparently he hadn't found someone since the women had disappeared.

"Dorcas, I had thought to host a dinner around the new year. It would be ravishing to have a girl with such a focus and purposeful mind like you there. Would you like to come?" he asked.

"Uhm, new year you said? I don't know if I can…" Dorcas started. She glanced over to Sirius with the hope he could save her. It was, after all, he who had tricked her in to the Slugtrap to begin with. To her disappointment he just shrugged and tried to not laugh at her annoyance.

The professor didn't miss the glance and said easily, "Sirius, you are of course also welcome. I wouldn't want to come between a young couple, less separate you, even for an evening."

"This isn't, well, we…"

"We actually aren't… " both Sirius and Dorcas started but were once again cut off.

"You're a charming pair, I have to say. I'm really looking forward to hearing how you got together." He looked thrilled and then said "No I think I will leave you two alone now. Sirius, keep an eye on your lady so no-one steal her." He winked before he walked towards Lily on the other side of the room, leaving Dorcas (speechless) and Sirius (with his jaw at his knees) behind.

"You'll pay for this" Dorcas hissed before she stomped out. Sirius followed, laughing, after.

"Self-defense Cassy, it was self-defense!"


A/N

A big thank you to my Betareader: DarkGarnetRose

Just so everything is clear; Sirius and the others are in there fifth year in this chapter.

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