Chapter Twenty: Intentions and Insults

No. Not mine. Never was. Never will be.

I hope you enjoy it and thanks so much for the reviews!

Keena's Point of View:

The ball ended with just enough drama that I just knew I was going to be in need of more tissues come the return of term. I had zero intention of entering that office until that point in time. I had been trying to come up with believable excuses to use until a sudden wave of nausea hit me just as Sirius and I entered our quarters at quarter to one in the morning.

I sprinted to the bathroom leaving a very confused Sirius standing in the doorway and found myself facing dinner a second time. I was most displeased. Lucky for me, my dress robes managed to stay clear of any troubling residue and Sirius had made it to me in time to pull the one loose curl away from my face. When I was finished, I groaned and leaned into him for support as his hand flew to my forehead to feel for a non-existent temperature.

"C'mon, let's get you ready for bed," he murmured, clearly worried. "Did anything taste odd or strange at dinner?"

"No, everything was perfect, as usual," I muttered, ignoring the taste in my mouth for the moment because I didn't want to risk ruining my dress or Mrs. Potter's pendant.

Once I was ready for bed I went to wash my mouth out only to find myself at the porcelain again. Sirius sprinted to my side and pulled my hair back away from my face as I gripped the rims of the toilet for support. He rubbed soothing circles on my back until I was finally sure there was nothing left.

"Apparently everything was not perfect," he corrected me, helping me up so I could wash my mouth out. "I'm going to let Dumbles know that I can't take my shift and neither can you; I don't want to leave you here by yourself."

I just nodded numbly and didn't refuse when he lifted me up to carry me to bed. He set me down and summoned a pail, vanishing what little there was inside of it so that I wouldn't have to race to the bathroom again. I sighed against my pillow dejectedly.

"I'll be right back," he whispered, kissing the side of my head before heading out the door.

So much for a happy ending to our first real Christmas in thirteen years.

He returned less than ten minutes later, accompanied (to my complete and utter horror) by Madame Pomfrey. I looked at her in shock before turning to glare at him. "Traitor," I accused.

"Calm down, Professor Potter, I will not require you to come up to the Hospital Wing unless I find something wrong with you," she informed me with a roll of her eyes.

"Wrong by your standards or mine?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"How about by my standards?" Sirius suggested. We both looked at him with raised eyebrows. "It was just a thought," he defended, putting his hands up.

"Just allow me to run a few analysis spells and I'll be on my way," she requested and I rolled my eyes. I hated it when healers waved their wands over you; they all hummed and clucked over the different colors that the spells turned, not once explaining what they meant. It was annoying.

She did her little spells and incantations and found absolutely nothing wrong with me.

"There is no way that there is nothing wrong with her," Sirius disagreed, shaking his head. "She's vomited two—"

Without warning, I lurched up in the bed and leaned over to the pail. I suppose I wasn't as empty as I had thought. Sirius pulled my hair back again and Madame Pomfrey got the covers away from the edge of the bed.

"—three times, all within the hour," Sirius finished, sitting on the bed next to me so that I could lean into his shoulder as he rubbed my back.

She huffed a little, vanishing the contents of the pail with a quick flick of her wand before she paced for several minutes. I didn't care; I just wanted to go to sleep. Finally she stopped in her tracks before looking between the two of us and then lowering her eyes to my ring.

"I've thought of one more test I can try,"

She waved her wand and her brow furrowed.

Kailey's Point of View:

We all woke up late the next morning and made our way slowly down to the Great Hall around eleven thirty, hoping for an early lunch. Instead we were treated to a very late breakfast, finding that more than half of the three schools combined had overslept. Once we had eaten our fill, the four of us returned to the common room, followed closely by Fred and George who sandwiched me between them and carried me over to the fireplace where they sat me down on the most comfortable arm chair in the room. I frowned up at them as Harry, Ron and Hermione scurried in behind them, all taking seats near the fire.

"What's going on and why are you both looking at me like that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at the expectant look on their faces.

"We need to know how much damage we need to do on this absolutely disgusting," George began, seething in a manner I had never seen.

"Despicable,"

"Idiotic,"

"Git so that nothing goes unpunished," Fred finished, just as heatedly.

I gulped. "I dunno if there's anything you can do," I replied and Ron and Harry leaned forward in what seemed to be anticipation and horror. Hermione didn't move, but only because she was glaring at the fire with her arms folded over her chest; I had already told her what had happened last night after she had awoken me from a frightening nightmare.

"We'll be the judge of that," was the reply I received, though it was from Ron, not the twins.

"No, seriously, I don't know if you can get to him; I think Maxime sent him straight back to France last night." I answered, shaking my head. "At least, that was the gist of her tone of voice I think,"

"Where there's a wand,"

"There's a way,"

I sighed. "Look, it's sort of embarrassing and I don't want to talk about it," I looked down at my feet, blushing as I remembered how I hadn't been able to really stop him on my own. It made me feel weak and vulnerable.

"Kailey," I jumped backward into the chair when Fred took a hold of my shoulders. He let go of me immediately as he took in my fearful response, a calculating expression on his face. He looked up at his twin. "We've got a lot of work to do,"

"Loads," George agreed, sparing me one last look. "Tell us when you're ready, because he is not getting away with this," and with that, the two of them headed out the portrait, heads already close together in full scheming mode.

I bit my lip and looked at the other three. Both boys were staring at me, confused, while Hermione gave me a look that was telling me to spill my guts. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I let it out slowly before I looked at them.

"I already told Hermione, and I'd rather not have to say it all again." I stated and Harry and Ron both switched their curiosity from me to her in a flash.

"Would you like me to tell them what happened?" she asked before even thinking to answer their questioning looks.

"Yes, please," I said quietly, curling up into my seat and leaning back, closing my eyes. That quickly became a mistake because as she explained what happened, I could see it happening again inside of my head. I shuddered when they gasped as she reached the part about the zipper. I was thankful that she didn't go into as much detail as I had about how relieved and terrified I was when it didn't open.

"Is that why you jumped when Fred-?" I nodded before Harry could finish his question once Hermione finished. He nodded in reply, a puzzled expression on his face before he seemed to understand why I had stepped away from him last night. My embarrassment doubled.

"You should probably go to Dumbledore and explain it all," Hermione repeated her earlier request but I shook my head again. She sighed. "You can't assume that he'll be sent away; not based off of what Maxime and Hagrid walked in on at least,"

"Why not?" Ron asked, looking away from the fire and switching between me and Hermione. "Isn't it bad enough that Maxime had to jinx him?"

She shook her head. "Kailey didn't tell Hagrid exactly the whole story, did you, Kailey?"

I ducked my head into my legs, which were still curled up on the seat with me. "It's embarrassing enough," I mumbled.

"You're just embarrassed?" Harry asked. I didn't need to see his expression to know he was angry with my excuse. "That's not a good enough reason to let him get away with it,"

"It is though," I said angrily, looking up at the three of them. "You all told me I should stay away from him and I was stupid and naive and selfish. I deluded myself into thinking I liked the way he said my name or how he'd always kiss the back of my hand. I couldn't tell the difference between the fear versus attraction. It is all highly embarrassing," my voice broke at the end of my mini rant and hot, angry tears had risen in my eyes. "And I've had enough people gossiping about me this year with how weak and stupid I am. This would just prove them right," I added, rubbing the sleeve of my sweater across my face to erase the tears.

"Kailey, no one is going to blame you for this. No one even needs to know," Harry explained, leaning forward in his seat as Ron nodded next to him and Hermione huffed.

"If you don't want to tell Dumbledore, why don't you just go and tell Sirius?" Ron offered when I shook my head again at Harry's suggestion. "He's the school Auror right? Isn't this supposed to be his job?"

I rested the side of my face against my legs and gazed at the fire. "I s'pose it is," I murmured. "But don't you think he'll get…irrationally over-protective?"

"I don't know about over-protective but I don't think he'll get too irrational," Hermione replied thoughtfully. "Shall we just go now?"

"Neither of them were at breakfast though," I interrupted before Ron or Harry could nod. "I don't want to bother them,"

But all three of them ignored me, standing up and heading for the portrait. I groaned and stood up to follow them down to Sirius and Keena's quarters.

Keena's Point of View:

I woke up the next morning feeling much better and very, very hungry. But I was also furious with Pomfrey. She had tried to check if I was pregnant. Naturally, that had not gone over too well. The mist had turned blue for a flash of a second before it dissipated, colorless. She insisted I go to St. Mungo's to check since it had turned blue for a moment. I had refused against both her and Sirius, and it seemed that I would be forced to continue to refuse Sirius.

"What will it hurt?" he asked as I sat on his bed, trying to wake him up so we could get food. I rolled my eyes. "Honestly, Keena, wouldn't you like to know why you were so sick last night?"

"It's called morning sickness if it's a pregnancy, Sirius," I replied, running my hands through his hair, attempting to untangle it. And partially to distract him. "I was sick last night,"

"Technically, it was early this morning," he pointed out, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me down next to him. I gave him a look. "Alright, so it was very early this morning, I'll grant you that. Please, won't you just let them check? Maybe Amanda could,"

"Sirius, we've only ever had sex two times. What are the chances that both times, I would get pregnant?" I asked bluntly, still giving him the same look.

"I just think it couldn't hurt," he muttered, pulling me closer and burying his face into my hair. "And it's too early to go and eat," he murmured into my hair.

"It's nearly eleven thirty," my voice was muffled by his shirt.

"Fine, then it's too early for you to try and eat a full breakfast. Call in a house-elf and have it bring you something small," he returned, kissing the top of my head. "Because I am not getting out of this bed,"

"You are if you expect food, Sirius," I informed him, slipping out from under his arms and heading into the living room, calling a house-elf as I went.

He threatened to call Madame Pomfrey down if I didn't wait to see if I could hold down my food before really eating something. My stomach growled in protest and I leaned into him as he ate his delicious-smelling pancakes and bacon on the couch. I inhaled deeply before glancing up at him to see him smirking down at me.

"You can get your own in a few minutes; be patient," he said, poking my nose with his syrupy finger.

I huffed and went into our room to get showered and changed. Just as I came out, he went sprinting by me, telling me to get the door. I jumped as the door to our bedroom slammed shut and heard a knock from the other side of the room.

I opened the door to find Harry, Ron, Hermione and Kailey assembled, all looking uncomfortable, so I just stepped aside and gestured for them to enter. The living room still smelled like breakfast, making my stomach rumble a little, but I ignored it in favor of finding out what the problem was.

"Where's Sirius?" Harry asked, taking a seat next to Ron and Hermione on the couch while Kailey took the single-seater armchair. I sat down in the loveseat, watching as Kailey curled up into a ball after removing her shoes.

"He's just dashed into the bedroom to change. He must've heard you knocking before I did," I added, glancing at Harry with a questioning look as Hermione and Kailey exchanged a series of expressions that didn't all quite make sense. "What's going on?"

"We came to talk to Sirius about something," Ron stated, his eyes flickering to Kailey as she blushed and ducked her head.

"Oh," was all I said as I understood the problem. It seemed we were about to find out what had actually happened the previous night. Sirius entered the room moments later, his hair still a little damp meaning he had towel dried it.

"Alright, Kailey, out with it," he instructed, summoning a piece of parchment and pulling the coffee table closer to him. He tapped his wand against the parchment so that it would record everything factual that she said so that her emotions wouldn't be an issue when dealing with the punishment. Though, if I was being honest with myself, emotions would rule Sirius in this particular situation.

She took a deep breath, glanced at Hermione, who nodded encouragingly, and began to tell us what had happened. It was obvious right away that she had already told Hermione the story herself and the boys seemed familiar with it, though it was obvious when new details were revealed to them. I kept my reactions to myself as best I could, trying to keep Sirius from pouncing out of his seat every now and again, though mostly he sat still as a statue. When she reached the part about the zipper, she shuddered and hugged her knees closer to her chest.

"I don't know how or why, but he just couldn't…he couldn't…y-you know," she muttered furiously, hiding her face from the rest of the room.

The parchment had stopped recording when she stopped speaking and Sirius closed his eyes, took a steadying breath. "Kailey, you need to finish," he informed her, causing the parchment to imprint his words.

"He couldn't force…the zipper was stuck," I held Sirius in place as her voice broke. He took another steadying breath as my own hitched. She finished her story as quickly as possible and Sirius tapped the parchment again, with more force than necessary to be honest.

"Keena?" Hermione said quietly and I nodded at her to let her know I was listening. "You knew the zipper was stuck on her dress," she stated and I nodded again.

"Yours was too," I murmured in reply before giving Sirius' hand a tight squeeze and standing up to go to Kailey. "Boys, could you give us a few?" I requested and all three of them headed out, Sirius taking the parchment with him, most likely off to see the headmaster.

I moved her over to the couch to sit between Hermione and me and we just let her cry.

Kailey's Point of View:

Being summoned to see the headmaster was probably not exactly the highlight of my day, mainly because it meant seeing Leon too. Sirius stood behind me and Keena sat next to me and I had a feeling the room was more magical than I thought because Madame Maxime sat between Leon and I while Dumbledore stayed behind his desk. The entire atmosphere was thickly tense and I was incredibly uncomfortable, despite the extra space the room was suddenly filled with.

The scene had been played back to us all via Dumbledore's pensieve. Maxime was even more furious than she had been the night before and I was fairly certain Sirius was going to make me walk around with a bag over my head for the rest of my life if Snape didn't lock me away once he got wind of this. Keena had held onto my hand the entire time, though I couldn't see Leon's reaction to it all. I hoped he was terrified of the look Dumbledore was giving him, though. It was scarier than both my dad, James and Sirius all combined with Remus in uncontrollable werewolf form.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" it was saying something that Dumbledore didn't bother with the formalities. His eyes had even stopped twinkling.

"She should not 'ave led me on in zat way,"

I squeezed Keena's hand to keep myself from bursting out angrily.

"She always complained zat 'er friends were over-protective. I assumed zis meant she desired more,"

"The slap in the face wasn't a good enough hint for you?" Sirius snapped. "Or maybe that she called you a spineless ogre after you told her she was 'muddy'?"

"Auror Black," Dumbledore warned and Sirius paused.

"Non, 'e iz right to criticize. Zair are non excuses for zis atrocity," Madame Maxime interrupted. "I am ashamed of zis entire ordeal," she continued, turning to give me both a pitying and apologetic look.

"Shall we discuss the appropriate action, then?" Dumbledore suggested and she nodded in reply. "Kailey and Professor Potter, you may both go. Auror Black, if you would not mind remaining behind,"

Keena nodded and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder to steer me out of the room, though whether she was blocking him from my sight or me from his, I couldn't be sure. The rest of the school was going to find out soon in any case. Fred and George had already rallied up a group of Gryffindors to assist in playing their 'humongous-embarrassing prank' that would apparently top the century. Sirius had pretended not to hear me when I told him to keep an eye out. I had a feeling he was a part of the entire thing to begin with.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Keena asked me as we walked along the halls back to the common room. I shook my head. "Let me rephrase that then; do you need to talk about it?"

I glanced up at her but quickly looked away at her pitiful stare. "No. I just want to forget about it," I replied. "I've got the tournament to focus on anyway. Gotta figure out how to get Harry to take Cedric's advice soon enough for us to come up with a good game plan,"

"Don't you think you might need to take care of this first?" she pressed.

"The tournament is deadly; this is not," I said firmly, though I felt bad at her sudden expression of fear, even if she did recover faster than you could say 'snitch'.

Keena's Point of View:

The return of the term brought with it a new year, a few more random nights of vomiting and a brand new hatred for Rita Skeeter. Honestly, I wanted to turn her into a bug so I could squish her flat. Like a pancake. Or maybe flatter than that.

"I thought we killed that damned quill?" Sirius hissed as he picked up the newspaper I had crumpled up moments before. That was his reaction just before he read the article. "THAT BLOODY—!" Despite my insane curiosity about what Sirius had been about to say, I was incredibly grateful that Severus had shot that silencer at him from across the table. The entire hall (all three schools that is) froze and stared at Sirius as he worked furiously to tame his outburst.

I caught Harry's curious gaze from the end of their table and just shook my head at him. He frowned, but turned back to the other three and shrugged and they all went back to their breakfasts, seeming to be uninformed at the moment about the latest article.

"Sirius, are you calm yet?" I asked casually, stabbing my food with enough force that I was surprised I didn't crack the plate.

He took a deep breath and nodded and I flicked my wand at him to return his voice. "It certainly explains Hagrid's lack of appearance this morning," he grumbled. "I dunno how she even pieced that one together, sounds like a load of rubbish. 'Half-giant unable to protect champion in distress' my arse,"

I nodded in agreement. "The problem is, if Hagrid isn't here that must mean that it's true or he wouldn't've paid any attention to it. He's too…sensitive for this,"

"Even if he had protected her, it would've been turned on him the other way," Sirius agreed. "And this story makes it sound like he did get the damned zipper down," he growled, glancing down at the Ravenclaw table.

I looked over as well. Leon sat there with neon colored skin and hair that was down to his shoulders. His robes, aside from looking as though he had rolled in a pig-pen, spelled out in capital letters 'WORLD'S LARGEST GIT!' in flashing colors across the back. It happened to every pair of robes he tried on and no one had been able (or willing) to fix it when it had first appeared under a firestorm of stink bombs one morning soon after Boxing Day. Madame Maxime had confiscated his wand as well, so he hadn't been able to try to fix the problem himself, and she was quite satisfied to leave him be as he was.

"You don't think she'll make another crater do you?" I asked quietly, glancing over to the Slytherin table where Malfoy was sitting across from Krum, reading the Prophet with glee. He must've been proud with his quotes. I was pleased to note Krum looked disgusted every time Malfoy opened his mouth.

"I was kind of hoping that she would, actually," he muttered, glancing at me with a glint in his eye. I smiled before sighing. "She'll be fine; Harry won't let anyone bother her,"

"That's why I'm worried," I replied darkly.

Suddenly there was a large commotion over at the Slytherin table.

"Votch your vords!" Krum shouted, standing up straight with his hands balled into fists at his sides. He was glaring at Malfoy, who looked shocked and confused. The entire hall was immediately silenced as everyone stared openly at the exchange.

"What are you talking about?" Malfoy answered, his confusion seeming to double as Krum took a step away from the table. The rest of the Durmstrang students began standing as well.

"You haff no manners, no honor and no dignity. I vill keep both myself and my schoolmates as far avay from you and your filth as possible," Krum replied acidly before turning on his heel and marching towards the Gryffindor table, the rest of his classmates following him.

They stopped and Krum bowed at Harry and Kailey before some quick and quiet words were exchanged as the rest of the hall began chattering. Harry glanced at Kailey, who nodded, and they all began scooting down to make room for the foreign students. Hermione looked pleased beneath her blush as Krum sat down next to her, though Ron looked a tad upset despite his obvious joy at having Malfoy humiliated. I was amused beyond belief.

"That was…sort of funny," Sirius concluded after a moment's consideration.

"And highly embarrassing," McGonagall informed him stiffly, from my other side.

"How so?" I asked, cocking my head to one side.

"Clearly Mr. Malfoy offended Mr. Krum, meaning someone from Hogwarts has offended the Durmstrang champion," she replied as though it were obvious.

"Yes, but now Durmstrang is sitting with Gryffindor. Clearly proving that the Lions beat the Serpents again," Sirius answered with a smirk. "That and I can now officially bother Severus about something legitimate, other than his lack of personal hygiene,"

That's the end of that one. I hope you enjoyed it immensely despite how very jumpy it was with POV. Thanks for past reviews and I'd greatly appreciate more (I especially like the ones with questions, even if I might not answer in a straight line)! Next shall be 21!

:-D