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Chapter Ten - Dawn of a Brand New Day

The next morning

The early morning sun shone through the window as it's golden beams of light greeted the sleeping body curled up in the middle of a large four poster bed. The body was wrapped tightly in a coverlet of scarlet and gold, like a birthday present, and a mane of soft, blond hair could be seen through the opening at the top of the blankets. The soft tuneful call of a bird out for some breakfast could be heard from inside, while another figure made its way into the room in which the first slept undisturbed.

Maggie rolled over in her sleep and tried to get comfortable, however she didn't think that sleep was the most appropriate word to describe her current physical state. She found herself floating somewhere in the region between sleep and awake, where you want nothing less than the sandman to hit you with all he's got and whisk you away to a more peaceful place. But she knew that it wasn't going to happen. Maggie shifted onto her side and was rudely awoken by the beam of sunlight that shone onto her face. Her eyelids slowly fluttered open and she blinked until her eyes had adapted to the bright light the bedroom was bathed in. Her hands attacked her eyes to rub away the sleep from them and when she tried to sit up, the confusion caused by her unfamiliar surroundings immediately caused her to flop her back into the pillows.

It wasn't another one of her strange dreams. She was still there.

"Sleep well?"

Maggie's eyes flew open again but she was unwilling to move any of her limbs that had been rendered numb by their long inactivity. The drapes had not been completely closed over the windows the evening before, and the bright light of dawn was filtering into the bedroom as it illuminated the smirking face of Sirius Black.

"I'm sorry to inform you that last night's events were not a product of your imagination," he informed her, rifling through a drawer in the nearby bureau, "You really are stuck here. So take a moment and let it sink in…"

"What are you doing in here?" Maggie demanded, finally able to get her eyes to focus on him.

"This is my bedroom, remember?" Harry's godfather reminded her, not once looking up from the drawer that he was looking through. "But not to worry, I will be gone in a moment. I simply need to find something…"

Maggie allowed her eyes to linger on the room's true owner for a moment and noticed that in the light of day Sirius's gray eyes and long, dark hair reminded her of a sexy rock-star she had a crush on in her youth.

Oh God.

Her teeth bit down on her bottom lip and she took a deep breath as she tried to rid her foggy brain of that thought.

"Tonks stopped by early this morning and dropped off some clothes for you. She said she would do some shopping for you if you like those." Sirius said suddenly, rudely breaking into her thoughts and nodding to a pile of clothes haphazardly tossed at the end of the bed.

Slowly crawling down to the edge of the bed, Maggie examined the pile of funky skirts, stylishly patched jeans, and colorful t-shirts. Smiling to herself, she looked up to find him watching her and said quietly, "This was very nice of her."

He shrugged and informed her, "She figured that you wouldn't have any proper clothes in that small handbag you were carrying last night and you couldn't really show up to breakfast in that."

Maggie looked down at the shabby old work shirt of Bill's that Molly had lent her to sleep in. Realizing that the shirt barely covered her bare thighs, she quickly covered herself with the coverlet and could feel the blush creeping up into her cheeks.

Pretending that he hadn't noticed, Sirius continued, "Unless you would like to have your breakfast in bed this morning. I'm sure that one of the twins would be more than happy to bewitch a tray for you and float it up the stairs…"

"No," Maggie said quickly, ignoring his smug smirk, "I will come down for breakfast." Watching as he moved across the room to rummage through a drawer in his wardrobe, she asked quietly, "So, after breakfast, what is going to happen?"

"Most of us will be involved with Order business for most of the day, so I would guess that Molly is going to put you to work helping her and the children clean out a few more bedrooms." He answered, furrowing his brow as he lifted a piece of parchment and read it carefully. Apparently deciding that it wasn't what he was looking for, he threw it back down and continued searching the drawer in front of him.

Since he obviously wasn't in a hurry to leave the room, Maggie slowly sat up and pushed the covers off of her body, a shiver spreading throughout her form when the coldness in the room attacked her semi-clad form. She wasn't expecting the room to be cold in the middle of the summer. She swung her legs over the bed, silently wishing that Sirius would take a hint and give her some privacy, and got to her feet.

Moving around the edge of the bed, Maggie managed to stumble right into one of the solid bed posts and she immediately felt the pain shoot straight from her big toe and spread out through the rest of her body.

"Ouch…dammit! Ow, ow, ow, ow," Maggie growled and snarled as she jumped around on one foot, both of her small hands holding onto her right foot up as she jumped up and down on the left.

Sirius was at her side in an instant, a concerned expression on his face.

"Maggie?"

"Damn, that hurts…ow," she sneered and carefully peered down at her foot as she gingerly placed it back on the floor. But the moment that she did, she cursed herself and gritted her teeth as her body screamed at her for putting pressure on the sore toe.

"What is the matter with you?"

"I stubbed my toe!" she told him sharply as she sat back down on the edge of the bed and lifted her foot so that she could examine it. Wiggling it slightly, Maggie heard a popping sound which she recognized as a piece of her bone rubbing against another piece of bone. "I think it may be broken."

"Oh, for Merlin's sake…" he muttered, reaching out to gently take her foot in his calloused hands. Glancing down, he realized that the big toe on her right foot was beginning to swell to twice it's original size. "How did you even manage to DO this?"

"Look, if you're just going to lecture me then give me my foot back." Maggie replied crossly, trying to pull her leg out of his grasp. But he held on tightly and smirked up at her as he reached into the pocket of his jacket for his wand.

"No!" Maggie cried, shrinking back further on the bed. "You're not going to use that thing on me!"

"I'm not going to turn you into a wine goblet," he muttered, holding tightly to her ankle as she tried to wrench her foot free from his grasp. "I'm going to fix your toe. Now, hold still…"

"Don't!" She objected and then without thinking cried, "The last time I saw you use that thing, someone turned into a rat!"

Sirius chuckled and pointed his wand at her throbbing toe as he muttered, "Episkey." Maggie's eyes widened in shock as her toe reduced back down to it's normal size and the throbbing pain disappeared as quickly as it had come.

Reaching down to grab her foot, which Sirius finally released from his grasp, Maggie breathed, "You fixed it!" Looking up at him, she added, "It was broken and you fixed it without medicine or bandages or…anything!"

"And it's still a toe," he chuckled as he looked down at her with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, "and not a rat." Raising his eyebrow at the pretty blond, Sirius asked seriously, "When are you going to figure out that I am not going to hurt you?"

"When you stop being so rude to me." Maggie snapped back, letting go of her foot and moving away from him. For some reason being near Sirius Black was making her lightheaded. It was probably because she hadn't had any breakfast yet…

"I haven't been rude to you this morning." Sirius pointed out, gesturing to her foot.

"Well it helps that the morning is only ten minutes old, doesn't it?" Maggie reminded him and then added, "Last night…"

"Yes, about that," he interrupted, an embarrassed smile coming to his face. "Last night was more about me being angry at me than me being angry at you."

"Am I supposed to understand what that means?" Maggie asked, crossing her arms over her chest and leveling him with her eyes.

"It means," Sirius began, the grin on his face replaced with a scowl, "that if Harry and I hadn't been outside last night, you wouldn't have seen us and…"

"…and I'd still be wandering around the streets of London." Maggie finished for him, the hint of a smile playing on the corners of her mouth. But she was determined not to smile at him, not yet.

But it was Sirius who smiled as he replied, "Oh, I believe that some poor fool would have taken pity on you and fallen over himself to rescue the beautiful damsel in distress."

"Like a Death Eater?"

"No, Death Eaters do not want to be seen by Muggles…they hate Muggles." He explained, moving over to the window and pulling the velvet curtains open wider. Sirius peered outside for a few moments before he continued quietly, "I have a habit of making rash decisions and foolish choices and when I do, people end up getting hurt. Or killed."

"Like Harry's parents?" she asked softly.

He turned away from the window quickly to look at her as he asked, "He told you about that?"

"Parts of it."

Another faint smile ghosted Sirius's lips as he informed her, "That doesn't surprise me. Harry is quite fond of you."

Maggie blinked away the unexpected tears that had sprung to her eyes and whispered, "Well, I am quite fond of him as well."

"I noticed." Sirius replied and when she raised her head to look at him, their eyes locked and held for the briefest of moments. He was the first to look away, as he cleared his throat and said, "Yes, well anyway…last night I was feeling restless and was able to convince Harry to go against his better judgment and come outside with me. So, because I was being selfish, I put Harry in danger and pulled an unsuspecting Muggle…woman…into our world." His lips curled into a wry smile as he added, "Literally."

She chuckled awkwardly as Sirius continued his explanation by saying, "It was not my finest hour and I suppose it just made me feel better to take it out on you."

"Glad I could help." Maggie quipped and this time she was rewarded with a true smile from him.

"If it makes you feel any better," he informed her with a roll of his eyes, "I was on the receiving end of severe tongue lashings about my behavior from Remus, Molly, Harry and even young Ginny for the rest of the evening. And trust me, those are four people you don't want to have mad at you."

"I'll keep that in mind." She assured him, trying to sound nonchalant. Moving over to the bed and picking up a pair of jeans and a purple t-shirt that Tonks had left for her, she said lightly, "I guess that sounded about as close to an apology as I am going to get, Mr. Black."

He watched her hold the t-shirt up in front of her and his lip twitched as he warned, "And don't think that it will happen again, Miss Magnolia."

Maggie's eyes shifted from studying the outfit to studying him as she said, "That is the second time you have called me Magnolia. How did you know that was my real name?"

"As I've told you, last night was not the first time I had heard of the famous Miss Thompson from Little Whinging Primary School," he reminded her with a sly look as he added, "When I said that Harry was fond of you, that may have been a bit of an understatement. He doesn't say much about his life with the Muggles, but he has often mentioned the young teacher who made life a bit less hopeless for a few months."

"Harry told you about me?"

"You sound surprised," Sirius said, looking at her strangely, "He's mentioned you many times. You made quite an impression on him. But in all the things that he told me, he never once told me of your inherent bravery."

"Bravery?" she repeated, looking at him oddly.

"When we were outside last night, you stepped in front of Harry. To protect him from me…before you knew he didn't need any protecting." He looked at her knowingly as he continued, "When I transformed into my human form from being a dog, you were scared. I saw it in your eyes…those baby blues were wild with fear. But your first instinct was to place your body, unprotected, between Harry and the source of your greatest fear. You didn't hesitate." He smiled smugly at her and added, "That told me that when you have to choose between fight or flight, you are one of the few that would choose to fight…no matter the circumstances."

"It was just my teacher's instinct…" Maggie stuttered, floored by the complimentary words.

"No, it wasn't," he disagreed with a vehement shake of his head, "I have known many teachers in my day, Maggie, and not many of them would willingly step in front of danger for their students. What you did took real courage. And I am a great admirer of those who have courage and use it to protect my godson."

And with those words, he strode arrogantly to the end of the bed and reached around her to pick up one of the light blue t-shirts from the pile of clothes as he said quietly, "I like this one. It will bring out the blue in your eyes."

Maggie took the shirt from him as he continued his stroll over to the doorway and disappeared out into the hallway. And the last thing she heard was his roar of laughter as he made his way down the stairs.