"Well?" Sirius insisted, and I gaped for a few more seconds, my voice having left along with Snape.
"Er, right, well, Avery was trying to fight off the boggart and his Stunning Spell bounced off it and, um, hit you instead, and, er, well you kind of lost consciousness," I stuttered when I was finally able to speak again, but I was fumbling over all my words.
"The git actually cursed me?" he scowled, but broke into a wide grin after a moment's hesitation, "He must've been scared out of his wits, huh?"
"I-I suppose so," I said, trying to force myself to laugh but it came out sounding more like a croak. Sirius looked at me curiously, his happy expression changing and his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Is that all that happened? Where did they go?" he asked, as if reading my mind and realizing I wasn't telling him everything.
"Avery, er, managed to fight the thing off, and then they ran," I lied through my teeth, staring at the floor to avoid his piercing gaze. There was a moment of tense silence, during which I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed he would believe me; I had been so glad to earn his trust and didn't want to lose it so quickly, but something in my gut wouldn't allow me to spill Snape's secret. It might have been the knowledge that the Marauders, particularly Sirius and James, had a history of finding a sick sort of pleasure in harassing the boy. He may have been a greasy, sallow, even creepy kind of person, but no one really deserved to be treated the way he had been. I only turned a blind eye to it now that James, hoping to earn Lily's affection, had sworn, with his right hand placed theatrically over his heart, that he would leave Snape alone unless it was completely necessary; previously, I had always taken Lily's side and disapproved of their bullying tactics. Even though most of the time Snape was a complete prat, especially now that he had called his supposed best friend something so unforgivable, I still couldn't help but pity him; I knew if I told Sirius what I had seen, he would immediately tell James and they would find a way to use it to make Snape's life hell. And it would also be inevitable that Lily would find out; she was already undeniably upset about the ruined friendship, and I didn't want to make it any worse for her. But another part of me, the selfish part, had a different reason to keep what I had seen to myself; I felt as if I could relate. If the roles had been reversed and Snape had found out about my feelings for Sirius, I would have died if he told anyone. That was a particular thing I would prefer to keep to myself, especially since Sirius clearly didn't feel the same way I did; just thinking about how awkward things would be around him if he knew made me want to throw up. I reckoned Snape would feel the same way, so I resolved to keep his secret, if only because it reminded me of mine.
"Well, then, he got lucky," Sirius said finally, not a hint of suspicion in his voice, and I felt my entire body relax. He hesitated for a moment, then said softly, "You look a bit shaken, we should head back to the common room,"
"Alright," I agreed, relieved to have avoided an uncomfortable situation in which Sirius perceived I was lying and I had to explain why I was evading the truth.
We stood up, Sirius wiping the drool of his chin with a look of disgust. He relaxed his grip on the Marauder's Map, placing it against the wall to smooth out the crinkles he had made with his clenched fist before peering at it closely.
"Corridor's empty, we can go," he said after a moment of watching the moving dots on the map, most of which were already settled in their dormitories. I looked at the map over his shoulder, glancing at a specific area, and noticed with a pang that Snape was situated in the corner of the Slytherin common room, alone. A brief image of him flashed through my mind, in which sitting in a chair facing the wall and frowning, his thoughts filled with the image of a lip-locked James and Lily. Sirius bent down, grabbed the Invisibility Cloak off the floor, and threw it over us carefully. He motioned towards the door, and I walked with him, my thoughts still elsewhere. We headed down the deserted hallway, and I did notice with slight disappointment that Sirius didn't hold my hand this time. He was unusually silent, and I tore my mind away from what I had witnessed, turning to look at him. He looked as if he was deep in thought, his eyes glazed over.
"What's up?" I whispered, and he jumped slightly, looking around at me with bewilderment.
"I was thinking about what we could do from here," he whispered back, glancing at the map in his hand to make sure there was no one to overhear our conversation, "I don't reckon we can do anything with the Inferius, but I'm sure we can use the snake somehow," he continued, but I noticed his voice was lacking the usual excitement it contained when he was talking about his plans.
"Of course we can," I said softly, though I secretly hoped he wouldn't think of anything and the prank would be abandoned. The last hour had been far too stressful; I couldn't imagine it being much more nerve-wracking, but if anyone could manage to make it so, it would be Sirius.
"Right, right," he agreed half-heartedly, but seemed distracted again. Deciding not to bother him any further, I didn't speak again, and we continued towards the Gryffindor tower in silence, both of us lost in our own thoughts. I stayed as far away from him as I could, the distance restrained by the cloak, but still possible as the cloak was particularly large; the greater the proximity between us, the clearer I was able to think, so I stayed four steps away, the greatest distance I could manage without overstretching the material.
He stopped suddenly in a particularly narrow corridor only a couple turns away from the portrait hole, turning to face me so that I was trapped by him on one side and the wall on the other. He looked at me, his eyes sad.
"I'm sorry, Charlotte," he said quietly, and I stared, surprised.
"Sorry for what?" I asked nervously, taken aback by the expression on his face.
"I kept thinking about the way you looked after you revived me back there, and that made me think about the way you've been acting in general lately, and I realized I've been a bit of an arse," he said slowly, not taking his eyes off of mine.
"I don't understand what you're on about," I shook my head, flushing slightly under his gaze.
"You've been scared, Charlotte," he said sadly, "And it was my fault. That wasn't fair of me, I'm sorry," his voice was completely genuine, and I blinked at him, unsure what to say. It was true that I had been scared, but he hadn't forced me into anything; I had agreed, blinded by my irritating affections. He had also mistaken the look on my face earlier as fear, when it was really utter shock after the scene with Snape, which I had kept to myself. Part of him felt bad because of my lie, and that caused a wave of guilt to wash over me, distracting me from the other feelings that were currently possessing me, most of which were giddy and joyful. Sirius really seemed to care about me, even if it was just as a friend, and that meant a lot. I smiled, and he continued to stare at me, confused now.
"It's alright, really, I agreed to do this. Besides, I'm doing it as your friend. It's meant to help you. Don't worry about me," I tried to reassure him, my heart soaring at the concern in his eyes, and he nodded, smiling feebly, but he didn't look thoroughly convinced.
"Even so, I think we should postpone this for a while, at least until after break. We could both use some time to relax, I think,"
"That's perfectly fine with me," I agreed, and it was true. The more time, the better. He continued to look at me, the worry in his features still present.
"Thanks for doing this," he whispered, and I nodded, taken aback by the softness in his voice. My heart leapt into my throat.
"Of course. What are friends for?" I squeaked, forcing myself to smile weakly. He gave me an unreadable look, then stopped closer.
"You're a good friend,"
"Thanks," I responded, then added after a moment, "You are, too,"
"Hardly," he chuckled darkly, and I cocked my head to the side.
"Why hardly?"
"Well, you see, I have this thing where I put my friends in positions they don't particularly enjoy. I'm sure you can understand that, considering I'm doing it to you,"
"Sirius, stop it, I said it was alright,"
"Still," he whispered, quieter than ever, and took another step forward. I unconsciously took a tiny step backwards, centimeters from the wall, "I don't want you to hate me, Lottie," I froze, my heart thudding in my chest. Lottie? It was a pet-name, something I hadn't been called very often, and it wasn't just that; it was the way he had said it. Softly, almost seductively, though that might have just been my hopeful imagination. He was so close; my senses were overwhelmed. I took a deep breath, trying to calm down my frantic thoughts.
"I couldn't hate you if I tried," I whispered back, forcing myself to look into his dark eyes even though it made me feel dizzy.
"Listen, I wanted-" he began, but stopped suddenly, his eyes widening.
"Wha-?" I started, desperate to hear what he had to say, but he cut me off.
"Shh," he hissed, clapping his hand over my mouth. His fingers were inches away from my lips, which I frantically pursed, struggling to regulate my breathing. This was even worse, and also begrudgingly better, than the time he had placed his hands over my eyes in the library. He stood silently for a couple of moments, seemingly listening for something. I couldn't hear anything, but I reckoned that since his Animagus was a dog, his senses might have been a bit keener than mine. In fact, he had a sort of dog-like presence at that moment, the way all his features were alert and his neck turned slightly towards the end of the corridor. Suddenly, I heard it too; the dull thudding of a pair of boots, "Filch," he breathed, and, sure enough, the caretaker rounded the corner at the next moment, humming something under his breath. The hallway was so narrow that he was sure to run straight into us if we didn't immediately move. We may have been invisible, but we were still perfectly solid, and colliding with Filch when we were supposed to be in our tower didn't seem like a very good idea.
Before I even had time to react, Sirius' hand was released from my mouth and he was pushing me into the wall. He had just barely pressed himself against me, flattening our bodies, when Filch walked right past the spot Sirius had been standing in, narrowly missing trodding on the cloak, which was trailing on the floor. I unconsciously gasped, and the caretaker froze, looking around.
"Who's there?" he growled, frantically turning in every direction and squinting his eyes. I stayed perfectly still, holding my breath, which wasn't difficult, considering I had seemingly lost all ability to act like a normal human being when Sirius had grabbed me. I could feel his tense chest pressing against mine and his warm, silent breath was on my skin, which was suddenly covered in goose pimples. His long hair tickled my cheeks, and his large, grey eyes were glued to mine, silently telling me to not make any more noises. His hands were clasped around my arms, holding me in place, but I couldn't have moved if I wanted to; I was completely frozen under his touch. Filch finally gave up after what seemed like several days, stomping away and grumbling about ghosts.
Sirius relaxed, stepping away from me. I stayed against the wall, grateful that I could breathe again but regretful that we couldn't have stayed in that position for a few moments longer.
"We should go, let's not risk that happening again," he whispered, and I silently unstuck myself from the wall, walking beside Sirius with wobbling steps back to the Gryffindor common room. I wondered what he had meant by what he said; did he not want to be almost caught by Filch again, or was he referring to the contact between us? I hoped for the prior, but my pessimism told me it was both. Neither of us spoke again; I had no idea what he was thinking about, but all my thoughts were consumed by how fantastic it had felt when there was absolutely no distance between us. Being far apart seemed silly now; if I could have my way, I would've jumped into his arms and had him carry me to the portrait hole. I had to painfully convince myself that that would be ludicrous, and that what had happened would most likely never happen again.
"Sirius?" I asked tentatively when we were mere metres away from the Fat Lady.
"Hm?" he asked distractedly.
"We have the same problem as before,"
"What?" he looked around at me this time, bewildered.
"Getting in without anyone noticing," I explained, pointing in the direction of the common room.
"Oh, right," he sighed, "Let's just go for it and see what happens,"
I wasn't quite sure what he meant, but I followed closely behind as he whispered the password and the portrait swung open, revealing a particularly crowded common room for that time of night, considering we had lessons the next day. I almost groaned; it was just my luck. A couple heads turned to look as the entrance to the common room was opened after hours, but, of course, they could see no one, as Sirius and I were still concealed by the cloak. A few people stared for a few moments, confused, but they all eventually turned away, shrugging and rejoining their conversations. Only James, who was near the fire with the rest of our friends as always, continued to look in our direction with his eyebrows furrowed. Considering the fact that it was his cloak, I presumed he knew that Sirius was under it, but I hoped he didn't know about me. Sirius didn't look at him, or at anyone for that matter, but calmly continued towards the stairs that led to the dormitories.
"Think you can make it up without anyone noticing?" he whispered, crouching at the bottom of the girls' set of steps. I had to crouch as well for both of us to remain under the cloak, and I cast a quick glance at James, who had looked away and was now discussing something with the others, none of which were looking in our direction.
"I suppose so,"
"Good, then go," he nodded, and I lifted the edge of the cloak, crawling out from underneath it and onto the stairs. I had only managed to slide myself up two steps, staying close to the ground so anyone who happened to look up wouldn't see me, when I heard Sirius whisper again, "Charlotte,"
I noticed with a pang of disappointment that he hadn't called me Lottie this time, but I turned my head anyway, peering down at the foot of the stairs. It was a strange sensation, knowing he was there but being unable to see him. He seemed to guess what I was thinking, and he lifted the cloak slightly, peeking out.
"Goodnight," he whispered, and I smiled.
"Goodnight, Sirius,"
A/N: This one was a bit short, sorry! Hopefully you were still able to enjoy it, ha.
Well, I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow morning and I'll be gone for a week, so I unfortunately won't be able to post during that time. I'm sorry. :(
Don't miss me too much! (I'm totally kidding!)
Please review! For real!
Thanks for reading. :)
