A/N: Hello ! first and foremost i apologize for the ridiculous delay. read the author's note before this for a proper apology. thank you all for the unexpected amount of reviews. honestly i expected five but this was just too good to believe. :D thank you for reading and faving and alerting this story. and now for the reviewers. :)

SAS: you have no idea how much i appreciate that. :)

a123hotie, Sirius doesn't really have it that easy but he stands up for himself which does make a difference.

Gigi, lalaland, naginastar, bob, lcd619 : thank you ! and see what happens next here. :P

kooliepenguinez: thank you so much. and i'm sorry i delayed it so much that you had to review twice. :( i hope you like this.

Pixie: thank you for that hate review. i think i needed it to bring me to my urgent senses. and thank you for liking the plot and Eva. :)

Sparkly: Hello again ! i was wondering where you were, but i am glad to have you back and that you still like the fic. :)

Disclaimer: Anything under copyright here is not mine. except Eva and the Frosts and the Plot.

But there was no scream, no wail of agony. Sirius stood still for a few moments, his ears still ringing. In an instant, he found his feet running down the corridor and flying down a fair few flights of steps. His heart raced at the thought of someone being tortured right here, under his nose. He couldn't bear it, the only thing he had in mind at this point in time was that someone was down there and that someone needed his help.

Finally, he came down into the long, dark corridor along which lay the dungeons. The walls were damp and cold, sending chills down his spine. The corridor was still and silent. He didn't hear anything but his own heavy breaths. He lit his wand, muttering a Lumos. With the faint light at the end of his wand he started down the corridor. Most of the doors were caked in dust and cobwebs while the metal on them was rusted. These dungeons had seemingly not been used for a long time, yet Sirius was sure one of them had been used very, very recently.

After crossing a fair few doors he came across one which was held slightly ajar. His heart sped up as it creaked it open. He held his wand up higher so as to light a larger part of the dark dungeon.

"Hello?" he called out. "Is anyone here?" and then it clicked, "Hominum Revelio" he spoke softly. But there was nothing. He had missed them. He was too late.

Next morning, Eva woke up to the familiar slight discomfort in her body. She had experienced this before, the feeling as if the layers of skin in her body had been pierced with thousands of needles. But thankfully it was now only a dull ache. Last night, of course, was an entirely different story. After her mother had left, Eva had called for Binky who had very nearly fainted at the sight of her. But using her magic, Binky had taken Eva up to her room and cast a fair few healing charms on her body. After the healing charms had been cast, and when Eva was finally able to breathe normally, Binky had given her a potion which gave Eva a much needed dreamless sleep.

This, of course, was another day. Eva had learned to put all this behind her. It was of no use to wallow in self pity. She had received this treatment far too many times to be severely affected by it, and now that it was over, she would not think about it, not if she could help it. She woke up in a slightly groggy sate, which wasn't surprising considering the potion she had taken last night. Rubbing her eyes to get rid of the sleep, she bumped her shoulder into the doorway. Immediately she felt a sharp sting in her shoulder. She looked down to find a dark red bruise forming in contrast to her pale shoulder. This wasn't good.

She quickly took a shower and dressed in a long sleeved white jumper with a pair of blue jeans. She let her hair dry into their natural curls. She looked at herself in the mirror. Yes, she was back to her old self. The old, plain, serious Eva was back. She stared at her appearance a minute longer. She was nothing anybody would appreciate or desire, at least not in the looks department. Yes, she had the curves but her apparel was quite capable of not accentuating it. Last night was, of course, an exception, where she had to dress for her betrothal. But if it was in her hands, she would never be in that situation again.

Now, she turned back to the pile of presents waiting for her, if she didn't know better, she would think they were staring rather reproachfully at her for the delay. She picked up the first box, it was in deep blue wrapping and a note on it read "For my raven-y sister" she snorted as she recognised the scribble to be her brother's. On opening it she found it to be a set of quills, a quill from every bird she could think of and a pot of ink which would write in whichever ink you want by only saying the colour in your mind. Lisa, her best friend from school who was also a muggle born, had sent her a set of muggle literature while Rebecca, her other friend, had sent her a box full of every sweet available in the wizarding world along with a special box full of her favourite chocolate frogs. Eva suspected Blake to have something to do with the arrival of these presents in particular. Her mother had sent her the routine present, a book on their 'rich pureblood dynasty' which she had printed every year. Her uncles had sent her more books on various subjects, which may or may not be of much use to her. The Blacks had sent her a pendant with the black crest engraved in it. No doubt it was meant to be a 'welcome to the family' gift from them but she couldn't help but give a slight grimace at the blackening silver ornament.

This was her usual quota of presents, thus, she was surprised to find a small silver box sitting at the base of the pile. She picked it up and was curious to find out who it was from. But the note was unsigned, all it read was 'Just keep it.' She had no doubt it was from Sirius Black. She opened it to find a silver brooch; it was an intricately designed butterfly whose wings were spread out wide to reveal a deep blue motif. It was a beautiful ornament to say the least and Eva couldn't comprehend why he had sent her this considering their differences. Nevertheless she pinned it to her jumper, making a mental note to get him a present too.

Sirius had not slept well that night. He had been haunted by that curse to the extent that sleep completely evaded him. He had been up since the crack of dawn and since then proceeded to write the letter to James, take a long warm shower and finally get down to opening his presents.

He opened the topmost box from Remus. It was a book on self-control. Sirius couldn't help but crack a smile at this. He did need a bit of self control in his life. James had sent him the entire collection of the "Wild Witches," a band they had recently discovered which played rather inappropriate rock music. Peter had sent him a "Merry Christmas" card with a box of cookies. Sirius raised his eyebrows at this and was sure the rest had also got the same thing. His parents had gotten him a book titled 'Appreciating the Dark Arts'. He fought the urge to put the damn book on fire immediately and threw it to one corner of the room where the gifts from Bellatrix and the others lay. His brother had gotten him a vial of 'Felix Felicis' with a note saying: I nicked it from mother's stock, use it well. Maybe he gave his brother less credit than he deserved.

He looked at his watch to find it was still an hour to eleven, when he was supposed to meet Eva. He strolled down to the kitchens and grabbed a muffin, not really in the mood to go down into the dining hall and face the bats, as he fondly called them. As he went down the maze of the corridors he glanced at his watch again to see that he had half an hour to kill. He thought he might as well head up now if he wanted to reach it on time, considering it was on the sixth floor and he would have to manoeuvre through endless staircases and corridors. This place was worse than Hogwarts.

As he went up a staircase, his thoughts went back to the previous night. He was hoping it had been a dream but it was plain enough that it wasn't. He had no clue as to who had been in the dungeon that night and who had attacked who. He didn't even know that the person attacked was alright or not. In his letter to James he had mentioned the betrothal and the prank but left out the bit about the Cruciatus curse, not wanting to worry him. Apart from that he wrote the usual, asking the news of his fellow marauders who were spending the holidays with him and if they had managed to prank someone else. As his thoughts had kept him distracted, before he knew it, he was at the doors of library.

He was a good ten minutes early but not wanting to look like a fool standing at the doorway, he stepped inside. It was a large hall, lined with dark cherry wood bookcases on all the walls. There were bookshelves with their backs to each other at regular intervals. In each of these intervals were long dark tables with chairs to match.

He had expected the library would be empty, but to his surprise, he found Eva bent over a book biting her lip. She had her curls pulled back into a loose ponytail out of which a few tendrils hung loose. He had a sudden urge to pull at one of those curls just as she was doing, before he caught himself. What on earth was he thinking? He needed to get a grip on himself.

"You're here already?" he called.

At the sudden voice, Eva was startled out of the book. Her heart raced at the thought of being caught with the book, so she quickly shoved it down her bag. She looked up to find Sirius staring at her rather curiously. She pulled another book close to her before answering.

"Yeah, but I like it here in the library." At the look he gave her, which clearly said he thought she was crazy, she laughed and added. "But I can't say the same for you. What are you doing here early?"

He shrugged, saying "I had nothing to do. So you liked your present?" he said mentioning the brooch on her jumper.

She glanced down at the brooch with a small smile. "Yeah, thanks. It really is beautiful. Black, I'm sorry I didn't get you a present. I'll get you one soon for sure."

He just waved away her apology and came to sit down beside her. He peered into the book in front of her. Her heart and mind seemed to be in a race as to who ran faster at the close proximity.

"You can read upside down? I'm impressed Frost. I knew you were good at reading, but this good? Really, I had no idea." He smirked.

"Huh? What are you-" but she glanced down to find the book was really upside down. Her face flushed. "I-this-nothing. This is nothing. We should start on the research." She said standing up, not wanting to spend any more time this close to him.

"You start there and I'll go on the other end." She said, pointing him to the other end of the bookshelves. He stared at her for a moment before trudging down to the aisle. An hour later they each had a pile of books ahead of them as they skimmed through the ones in front of them. Sirius, though, was soon exhausted as he leaned back into his chair and yawned. He glanced sideways to find Eva with her head in her hands as her eyes ran over the words in the book.

"Do you always do this?"

"Hmm?" she mumbled.

"Typical." He muttered. But unfortunately for him, Eva chose that very time to become attentive.

"What is typical, Black?

"Nothing."

"It was certainly not nothing. Spit it out will you?"

"Fine! You are typical! You and your bookworm ways. You live and breathe books don't you? I could bet you haven't looked ahead of a book for even a moment. You don't know what life is. No wonder you are in Ravenclaw." He finished.

"And you mean what exactly by that?" she snarled. "Are you trying to say that reading or trying to learn is wrong? And what did you mean by 'no wonder I'm in Ravenclaw? At least we aren't foolhardy and proud like you Gryffindors are." She stood up from her seat. "You know what is so typical of you? You think youare the supreme being and everything you do is right. Maybe you aren't so different from your family, Sirius Black." She spat as she turned to leave. But before she could, a hand clasped around her arm preventing her from doing so.

"Take that back." Sirius snarled as he drew himself to full height. "Now." But as he tightened his hand around her arm, she visibly winced. She seemed to be in pain as she bit her lip, trying not to cry out.

"Wh-what's wrong?" he said, startled as he let go.

"Nothing." she gasped out, turning to leave quickly.

"Wait a minute." He took hold of her again, but this time gently as he pulled her sleeve back. He did not expect the large red print of a hand on her forearm steadily darkening into a dark red. He immediately let go of her arm as he spluttered. "I-What-I didn't- really- not mean to-"

Eva gave him a grim smile. "I know. It's not your fault."

With that Eva quickly left the library, leaving a gaping Sirius behind. As she left in a hurry, the book shoved roughly in her bag fell out. She didn't seem to realize as it did, though Sirius did. Picking it up off the ground, he read the title.

'Unforgivables and their Unforgivable Side effects'.

A/N: i hope you liked it. i made a point to make it longer to make up for the delay. and do review like you did previously. :)