A/N: Just a quick note that this chapter is a bit darker than those of the past, and any of my light-hearted readers might want to take note of this. It's nothing TOO bad, I promise you'll be fine, but I thought it would be nice of me to give you a warning.

Chapter Ten

Stroke of Midnight

I supposed Sirius had forgotten that we had just been officially banned from the library, because there was far too much stride in his step for someone that had just been yelled at by the very stern, cutting Madam Pince.

I had half the mind to remind him, so that maybe the memory might slow him down and I wouldn't have to jog to keep up with his pace, but I kept my jaw tight regardless.

He shot me a backwards glance, and let out a little agitated breath. My face was slack, and he must have been able to tell that I was bothered. "Gracie, it could have been worse. You know what James told me? That old bat actually threatened to hex him once."

I rolled my eyes, drawing my robes tighter around myself. "Let's just not tell Lily, yeah?

He visibly shivered, seeming to process her reaction. "Probably a good idea."

It hadn't really been my fault we'd been banned, not really. It was a temporary ban—until after Christmas break, so it wasn't that bad—but still, it wasn't my fault. Sirius was the one that started chasing me, screaming like he was running from the very likes of You-Know-Who in his god forsaken underwear. It wasn't my fault that I screamed in response and ran away in the opposite direction as fast as I could, and it wasn't my fault that the book shelf happened to be in that very opposite direction.

I groaned aloud at the memory, rubbing the top of my head where a dozen books had spilled off the shelf and slapped me full force. If I had retained any Charms in the short minutes we had been studying, it was most definitely gone now.

"Why do I even try to study with you, Sirius?"

He opened his mouth as if to answer, but then shut it, brows furrowed like he couldn't find the answer, either.

I sighed, turning away from him.

"Oh, I have it," he said quickly, jolting a bit in his steps.

I didn't have the energy to turn and meet his gaze. "Really? Do tell."

"You find me incredibly humorous," Sirius stated, very matter-of-factly, "annoyingly irresistible and—wait for it—enchantingly attractive!"

I choked on a laugh. "All I know is that I heard annoying and I must agree."

He made a face at me, and I mocked it, crossing my eyes and sticking out my tongue. He gave a little chortle laugh in response and I relaxed my face, breathing out heavily.

"Oh, come on," he whined, pulling on my sleeve. "You're not mad, are you?"

"Of course not," I said, the words springing forward effortlessly.

I wasn't mad, not really, but sometimes I found myself wishing that Sirius could be a little more... well... serious. Yes, Sirius could be ridiculous and he could make me laugh until I felt like my insides would turn out, but he was completely unreliable to study with. I'd been trying to study with him for a week straight and we'd gotten practically nowhere. Sirius didn't seem to understand that I just didn't get Charms like he did. He had a natural gift for things like that, and he didn't really need to study ever, but I did. My marks were, quite frankly, suffering a bit, and all of my attempts to improve them had ended up in vain.

I guess I couldn't completely blame Sirius for it, though it felt better to lay the blame on someone other than myself.

I walked beside Sirius in the dimly lit corridor, head pulsing with a kind of mellowed frustration. On top of everything, it was far too late for us to be roaming around and I was tired. We'd had an exam in Potions that morning and I'd been exhausted since. I felt like I was going to collapse right onto the floor.

I found myself vaguely wishing for Kenneth then. He definitely would have shut up if I'd said I wanted to study with him, rather than try to get a laugh out of me or scare me half to death. Kenneth understood diligence on a level that Sirius really just didn't find necessary. And that was perfectly fine, but it didn't help me any.

"I wish you were a Ravenclaw," I said to him, almost without thinking. It was a bit of a joke, but not completely.

Sirius's face fell, only the slightest, but I noticed the way his mouth went firm immediately. "Ravenclaw? What's so special about Ravenclaw?"

"They're smart, obviously."

He eyed me, and I traced a bit of offense in his gaze. "So, what? I'm a moron?"

I wondered if my words had come out wrong, or if maybe my thoughts had just been wrong in the first place. "Of course you're not," I sighed. "You're bloody brilliant. But if you were a Ravenclaw, maybe I'd actually get something done once in a while."

He didn't reply for a moment, eyes turned towards the floor.

In this brief moment of silence, I was suddenly horrified by my own words. Why had I just said that? I'd never felt an inclination to be with Kenneth when I was with Sirius before, not like I sometimes felt for Sirius when I was with Kenneth. Never, I realized, and the first hint that I might actually prefer Kenneth, I had to go blow it up in Sirius's face and be rude about it. He'd only been being Sirius, and I knew he wasn't very dedicated to his studies, so why was I frustrated when I had no reason to hope otherwise?

He knew just what I'd meant by it, too. Or what I had accidentally meant, rather, because it was completely unintentional.

"So if I was Howell, it would be more convenient for you," he said flatly, no question about it.

His words hurt, and not because they were offensive, but because I had just dug myself into a deep, damn hole. "No, I don't mean it like that, I was just meant..." What? Just hoping you might magically turn into Kenneth so I wouldn't fail out of school? Hoping I could use you to help my marks? Hoping you would just not be Sirius for a day, week, month maybe? I had no idea what I meant.

"You'd like me to be more like him, that's it?" Sirius asked, meeting me eyes rather daringly.

I parted my lips with the intention to answer, but I came up with nothing. That really had been what I was thinking, and it sounded even more terrible when my thoughts were coming out of his mouth.

His face flushed a slight red with indignation. "Should I join the Quidditch team, too? Maybe pack on a little more muscle, do my hair more like his, would that make you happy?"

I blinked quickly. "No, Sirius," I stammered out, "I didn't... I don't want you to be like that..."

"What, Gracie?" he breathed out. I imagined that he was a dragon for a moment, breathing fire, but he continued on and burned that image away. "What is it? Obviously you have something to say."

"I don't know," I murmured, and my thoughts were hitting me like flashes of lightning. I suddenly wasn't so sure it was just Sirius's studying that bothered me. It had to have been more than that, right? I wasn't getting so worked up over marks. "I don't know," I repeated, giving up, "just forget it, it's not impor—"

"Are you honestly about to say it's not important?"

I didn't answer.

"Look," he said, stopping in his tracks to steady his gaze with mine. "If I'm standing in the way between you and Kenneth"—I hated the way he said his name like that, like it was something disgusting—"then I'm dearly sorry, and I will make an effort not to let it happen again."

"That's really...that's not what I meant, Sirius," I said quickly. "It's not that big of a deal, at all, I'm sorry for—"

"No," he said, and he shook his head, not staying still long enough for me to see any more hurt in his eyes. "If you have something to say, then you should say it. You should have said it earlier. I'm sorry. I should have realized you wanted to be—"

"Shut up, Sirius," I spit out, cutting him off instead. "I just meant the Ravenclaw thing as a joke. Okay? I'm just... I'm stressed, Sirius, really, really stressed." I brought my hand to my forehead, letting out a caged breath. "Just let it go."

He gave me a hard look, and then shrugged like he didn't believe a word I was saying. "Let's just get to bed. It's... late."

I nodded my head in agreement and locked my jaw tight. No more senseless things would be leaving my mouth, at least for tonight.

We continued walking in silence, and I was very grateful that we were getting closer to the common room because first of all, I was dead tired, like honest to goodness dead tired, and second, I hadn't ever felt more awkward being with Sirius. Ever, and he had practically witnessed all of my awkward stages from a pre-pubescent little girl to now.

What was wrong with my head that I had senselessly blurted out that I wanted Sirius to be more like Kenneth? What was that?

I had honestly never thought of Sirius being different, never wished he'd be more like this or more like that, never imagined him in any other way than the way he just so naturally was. But the more I thought of him and the more I thought of Kenneth, the more I wished that Sirius could just settle down and think about things like Kenneth did. Kenneth was always seeing things in the greater picture, always planning ahead, always well prepared, always calm, always so controlled and so...

So not Sirius.

Oh, Merlin, he was the exact opposite of Sirius.

The poor bloke was honestly my best friend, sometimes even more so than Lily, and I just felt like I couldn't take that all the time. Where was the stability? I had none. I was always all over the place when I was with Sirius. We could never just have a normal day.

My mind might as well have been ready to blow up.

Suddenly, my face collided into Sirius's back and I squeaked like a mouse.

I was about to ask him why he'd stopped for no apparent reason in the middle of the hallway, when I just happened to not be paying attention, but he turned around and pressed a finger to his lips. "Shhh."

I mouthed an apology, scooting closer to the wall. Lovely, there was a teacher. Banned from the library, and a detention on top of it... How could the night get any better?

But in a moment I heard what had stopped Sirius in his tracks, and it definitely was not a teacher that he was afraid of. My stomach lurched.

It was a scream.

I met Sirius's alarmed gaze with wide eyes, and clutched his arm without consideration. He laid his hand over my fingers, holding me in a kind of reassurance.

My mind was reeling. I couldn't think. The same two words kept coming to mind.

Death Eaters...

But how could they have made it into the school? That didn't make sense. But, regardless, it had been a scream, and that could only mean that something was very wrong.

Sirius inched forward, pulling me along with him, and we both stole furtive glances around the corner.

What I saw was, in a sense, worse than I had imagined. Death Eaters would have been horrifying, of course, but this was twisted. Inexplicable almost. I knew those faces. They were students, and there was a figure below them on the ground, in a completely broken and vulnerable position.

Avery and Mulciber. They were seventh year Slytherins, and they were crowded around the figure, speaking in raised, uncontrolled tones that could certainly not be mistaken for anything close to kind or compassionate.

"We can do whatever we want with you," Avery sneered, bending down close to the figure's face. "We can hide you so easily."

Mulciber snickered in response, shooting the figure a swift kick in the ribs. The shrill yelp that resonated from the figure was most certainly a girl's.

"Who is she?" I whispered to Sirius.

He shook his head, unable to tear his eyes from the scene. He was about to pounce; I could feel it in his arm, the way it was so tightly tensed.

"He'll be proud of us," Mulciber egged on. "One less mudblood and the world's a better place, eh?"

Avery mumbled an agreement, so incredibly smug. My stomach twisted and my skin grew tight as he cackled. "Wouldn't hurt to hear the sorry little filth scream a little more..."

And before either Sirius or I could spring forward, a burst of light was ignited in the darkness and the girl was screaming in agony.

"Stupefy!" Sirius cried and leapt out from behind the corner. One of the boys fell back, and the girl's screams died down to a whimper.

The other boy—I couldn't see who with the light dimming on and off—raised his wand to curse Sirius, and I felt my heart drop. I pushed away from the wall and pointed my wand at the boy. "Expelliarmus!"

His wand clattered to the ground and the boy let out a sick, twisted laugh. "Oh, so there's two of you? Got a little army waiting for me, do you?" His voice drove my pulse so that it ached against my skin.

I recognized Avery and his sharp jaw, clenched menacingly at the two of us with our wands drawn at him. There was a pause where we all stared, wondering who dared to make the next move.

Mulciber crawled back to the scene and shot a spell over Sirius's shoulder, and in a moment the corridor was a mass of sparks flying from all directions. Sirius and I were sending and deflecting as many spells as we could think of. Avery scrambled to recollect his wand and a spark flew past me, cutting in so close to my face that it seared the skin on my cheek. I let out a short gasp of pain but I had no time to think and the pain was drowned in the explosion of color and power.

Sirius was hit suddenly, and hard; he flew back from me, into the darkness of the hallway.

"Petrificus Totalus!" I screamed, aiming my wand at Mulciber. His limps snapped together and he collapsed to the floor. Avery was momentarily distracted in a flurry over his partner's state, and I took it as my moment to dash to the girl.

Avery hissed, "Don't touch her! She's mine—"

"Stupefy!" I screamed at him and fell beside the girl. I only had a few moments... I'd thought stunning spells lasted longer normally, but it seemed as if all of the spells we had been casting were relatively weaker than usual. Only a few moments before it was chaos again...

I stirred the girl gently, brushing her hair out of her face. I instantly recognized her and I felt a pang in my stomach. I should have known it would be her. "Mary," I gasped, taking note of her state. No blood. That was good; I probably couldn't handle blood right now. "Mary, can you hear me?"

She groaned a little. "Oh, Gracie," she said with a shudder that overtook her body and her words. "They were going to kill me."

My face blanched, and I reached down to briefly stroke her cheek to comfort her. What had they done to her? "It's okay, Mary," I said, almost uncertain as to who I was actually reassuring. "You're okay. I won't let them near you. Okay? Do you hear me?"

She nodded, and my mouth was dry with panic. Avery was going to be up in a moment, and I was running out of feasible spells. I caught sight of Sirius climbing back to his feet, and I rose, too, but it was too late. I was too slow. Sirius was too slow.

Avery had beaten his way to me already. He was panting, right in my ear, down my neck. I froze, staring at Sirius with wide eyes as Avery came up from behind me and wrapped his arms around my shoulder, wand jabbing under my jaw.

"I said, Hachette, that she was mine... I said, not to touch her..."

A small groan escaped my lips as he pressed against my windpipe and I was struggling for breath.

It was in the next few moments that all hell broke loose.

Avery had obviously performed the counter-curse on Mulciber when my back was turned, as he was now regaining his posture right as Sirius lunged forwards forward towards me.

I didn't know the spell that Mulciber sent flying towards Sirius. I had never seen it before in my life, nor had I ever read about anything like it. It was bright and massive, like a ferocious fireball, and as soon as it made contact with Sirius, he was lit with brilliant, billowing flames. He fell to the floor, screaming and writhing in pain.

"Sirius!" I screamed desperately, thrashing violently in Avery's hold, but it was pointless. He was so much stronger. The air was choking my lungs to a sob. "Stop! Stop it! Sirius! Sirius!"

But neither boy had any intention of stopping, and the flames only grew and intensified. Avery's wand pressed deeper against my neck. I was struggling, screaming, crying, watching Sirius in agonizing pain, as a bright wand-yielding hand lifted itself from the flames and pointed itself at me.

There was a cross of flashes in that same moment: Avery fell backwards from me, right in the same moment as he had aimed a searing curse at my throat.

My hand jumped to the infliction immediately, and what I felt was very definitely blood. No mistaking it. I could not handle blood... My eyes were still on the twitching, tortured Sirius and I tried with everything I had to call out to him, but it wasn't enough. My words died with my lungs and I fell to my knees, choking and spluttering burning, acidic blood.

Sirius's brilliant and agonized image was branded into my mind and became all I could see.

It broke my heart to write this chapter. Oh, dear.. Mary's going to be fine, if that's any consolation, teehee :) Thank you all as always for reading, and be sure to leave me a review and yell at me if you feel so inclined. I will give you chocolatey goodness regardless.